I am a regular traveller across the country. I have experienced flying with all the domestic carriers. To begin with I would like to say that our service is quite a few notches higher than the service, by service I mean the soft service which is the human aspect of service, being quite a few notches higher than the service provided by domestic airlines in europe particularly Air France which I found to be really bad.
I never have very high expectations of good service from Indian Airlines. However some experiences of mine have been real eye openers. The one I mention happened on my recent visit to Hyderabad. I flew IA & apparently the flight that I was taking had a hijack scare for which the flight got delayed. In spite of that the cabin crew was so warm & friendly in their approach to the passengers that I never felt uncomfortable. They did not let us know that the flight was delayed due to the scare & kudos to their service which ensured a good onward journey.
On my return journey on the same trip, another surprise came to me. It was in the form of young people as the crew members. I am not against older people being crewmembers but it was really refreshing to see the young eager faces. They really were looking eager & quite happy to serve. It was excellent service provided in terms of warmth, promptness & courtesy. Way to go guys....keep it up. Just try to make this consistent across people & across airline
We need to clearly draw a distinction here in Hard service which is the material aspect of service. IA can definitely improve a lot on that e.g. On-time arrivals, departures;condition of aircraft etc.
However the soft service, the human aspect of service, though inconsistent is improving & we really need to encourage & appreciate them so that they keep going strong.
All the best