During my last visit to India, I had to purchase a ticket from Trivandrum to Male’. Now there are two operators , Indian Airlines and Island Aviation of Maldives. I went to the Indian Airlines office near Mascot Hotel Trivandrum at about 10:15 am and took a token from the security person standing at the Gate. My token number was No 5 and there were no body ahead of me other than two who were already at the two available counters. Two counters were occupied and all the other counters were vacant as there were nobody to attend.

I was watching the counter opposite where I was sitting and the lady was taking more than 20 minutes to issue the ticket who was at the counter when I had entered the office. They do not have any electronic system for tokens, but they have to shout to call the next waiting customer.

I heard here shouting No 3, but there was no body ahead of me, so I went to the counter and gave my passport and requested for a ticket from Trivandrum to Male’ for the next day. She asked me if I am paying by cash or credit card, I told Credit card and then she started working on that. In the mean time somebody was walking in front of her and she called him and started talking to him about her new house, family, marriage, etc for about 10 minutes. They are least bothered about the customer sitting in front of them and those who are waiting in the queue. She took more than 25 minutes to issue the ticket. She had to call some else to swipe my credit card as she did not know how to do that. Its really pitty to see such kind of service at the Indian Airlines office where lots of foriegn nationals come. I have been to many countries and when I compare the service quality, this is unacceptable. Even when we look at the private travel agencies, they give excellent service

Now most of the travelers are preferring to travel by Island Aviation flights as their services are excellent even though they have a small 50 seater plane.