Why Can’t Indians Fly In Style Like Singaporeans?

medium119382864A recent ‘toilet case’ has seen heated debate on and off social media – precisely because it speaks to a larger Indian reality. On the morning of March 5, 2025, an Air India flight took off from Chicago for a 14-hour non-stop journey to Delhi. Over 300 passengers were on board, and the aircraft had 12 toilets. As the flight progressed, one by one, each toilet became clogged.Somewhere over Greenland, 11 of the toilets were completely unusable, leaving only one functioning, in business class. Faced with this crisis, the crew decided to turn the plane around. After 10 hours in the air, the flight landed back in Chicago.What followed was chaos. Hundreds of passengers had to be accommodated, rerouted, or refunded. However, there simply weren’t enough Air India staff members to assist them. Delta Airlines’ employees reportedly stepped in out of sympathy, to help manage the situation. Passengers missed weddings, business appointments, and other important commitments.It took two days to restore the plane to operational condition. According to Air India, passengers have flushed down blankets, underwear and diapers on previous occasions too, causing plumbing problems. But it’s not just about toilets. Other complaints also keep surfacing. Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan recently shared how he was given a “broken” seat on an Air India flight. What’s going on? Air India was supposed to have been fixed, isn’t it? The entire problem lay in it being a PSU right? Now it’s private, owned by the Tata group, which runs Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai, Taj Lake Palace in Udaipur, Taj Mansingh in New Delhi, The Pierre in New York. These are some of the best hotels in the world. So, why can’t it deliver a top-tier airline?Adding to the disappointment, Air India recently merged with Vistara, which was actually one of India’s better-run airlines. The hope was Air India would be transformed into something like Vistara. Instead, Vistara has been swallowed up and its standards have now sunk to Air India’s level.We are told to be patient — that decades of PSU inefficiency cannot be undone overnight. Fine. But should we really accept a situation so bad that an entire flight has to turn around because of clogged toilets? Even IndiGo, India’s market leader, has seen a rise in customer complaints. But at least IndiGo is a low-cost carrier, and as long as you pre-order your sandwich before takeoff, you know exactly what to expect. The same applies to SpiceJet and Akasa. They operate on a no-frills model — getting you from Point A to Point B, nothing more. They never promised a world-class experience, never claimed to be luxurious.The big question is, do we not deserve a great airline? A city-state boasts Singapore Airlines. Even smaller Gulf nations have built Emirates, Qatar Airways, and Etihad — all offering luxury and reliability. Meanwhile, Indian airlines often feature on the Top 5 Airlines to Avoid lists.Why? Taxation is too high, regulations onerous, aircraft old, airports are not at a level to support a global leader airline and so on. Yet another reason is that many Indians have no civic or common sense, no matter how rich they get. It takes a certain kind to try and flush their underwear down a tiny airline toilet, but somehow those kinds are often found in our great nation. We believe in looking out for ourselves, let the rest be damned. And yet, all these above problems are solvable. Running an airline is no longer a particularly high-tech endeavour. Providing world-class luxury and service is not alien to us, we do it in our top hotels. First, govt does have a big role to play, not in actually running an airline, but in creating enabling conditions to ensure a world-class airline can prosper. Many countries do not tax ATF. Others have regulations that are luxury-and-quality friendly. India still has to fully ditch the 1980s-babu mentality of viewing luxury as a sin. Second, some operator must take the risk. Yes, we have had many Indian airlines fail. However, there has to be room for at least one great Indian airline.Third, we Indians have to really care about Indian assets. Stop clogging toilets and spitting paan. Let’s care more about quality and cleanliness. This chalta-hai attitude has led to the acceptance of mediocrity, which now seeps into many aspects of Indian life.A world-class airline would elevate India’s image on the global stage. It’s not impossible — we have the resources, the talent and the market size to make it happen. It’s time we prioritise this and ensure that India’s place in the skies is as high as its ambitions on the ground.