Alliance Air is introduced to you as the fully owned subsidiary of Indian Airlines. It mostly operates Boeing aircrafts of Indian Airlines, and caters essentially to the non-trunk routes.
The ground staff for both the airlines is probably the same, and there is not much of a difference in the service. But once you get into the aircraft, the difference is palpable. The aircraft is old and cramped, and sometimes even dirty. Mosquitoes and flies are found among your co-passengers – unwelcome ticketless travelers! The cabin crew may be younger, but their relative inexperience shows. As for the food served – the less said the better. The most common shortcoming with Alliance Air is the pitiable state of the Public Address System. Often you can hear the lady with the mike racing through the safety instructions, and the other pursers/hostesses demonstrating the drill. But if you can make anything out of the noises emanating from the PA system, you should be ranked as a genius. . Sometimes during the flight the Pilot’s voice comes through. Except the initial good morning or good afternoon, you can hardly understand what he says. To the first-time travelers it can be a bewildering experience.
If you are a seasoned air traveler, using both Indian Airlines and Alliance, you will find that over the past decade and a half there has been a remarkable improvement in the service. After private operators entered the aviation sector, Indian Airlines had to sit up and take notice. Hiving off the non-trunk routes to a subsidiary was one of the steps taken by IA to improve the quality of service in the trunk route. One also gets a distinct feeling that a lot of cost cutting takes place in Alliance Air, in terms of facilities, and one suspects in employee costs. But the results of such economy are not passed on to the customers. The fares are the same for IA and Alliance. Air travelers in the non-trunk routes have to endure inferior service, and yet pay the same or even higher costs for such service. One awaits the entry of more private operators in the non-trunk routes, so that the services in this sector would improve. It is time that Indian Airlines wakes up to the fact that the policy of robbing Paul to pay Peter can be a good long term strategy!
I have to say that I recommend Alliance Air to travellers in smaller cities, since the alternative is you don’t have a choice! But if you have a choice, I won’t rcommend Alliance Air.