Flying low

What's ailing Air France? The airline has had a sordid last little while, lurching from bad press to the worst possible news, all in the span of a few weeks.

First there were the damning reports that the airline had ill-treated Indian passengers stranded overnight at Paris airport. The angry passengers alleged that they had been forced to spend the night uncomfortably in the airport lounge, while those with American passports were granted transit visas -- and overnight accommodation. What's more, they alleged that they were served just one sandwich and a bottle of water during the 12-hour layover.

As if bad publicity wasn't bad enough, a second set of passengers too complained about similar ill-treatment at Paris airport. The second group joined hands with the first, and the accounts seemed to take on a shrill, even melodramatic, tone. The airline offered monetary compensation. The passengers first said it wasn't about the money, and then said they'd go to court to demand more money. What may have started off as a legitimate fight against European high-handedness degenerated into a case of crying wolf.

What mystifies me about this entire episode is the airline's response -- or the utter lack of it. Even if I wasn't a PR pundit, I'd know that the first step towards stemming the damage would be to call a press conference. Instead, the company issued an impersonal press release which "apologised for the inconvenience caused". With no official available for comment, newspapers ran only the side of the story they had access to -- the passenger accounts.

In the bargain, many valuable insights were lost. As V pointed out to me, this is hardly the first time that Indian passengers have been denied transit visas at Charles de Gaulle. He says it is almost a weekly occurrence, one that airline officials have little control over. Transit visas are issued by the French police, who routinely deny them to Indians and Chinese, among others, to ward off illegal immigrants.

Surely, transit passengers with legit visas are different from "pigeons" who flush their passports down during flights and claim asylum? But it seems like the French police don't make this distinction. As V was at pains to explain to me, this isn't just an airline problem, it's a diplomatic problem. But not many know about this, because the airline hasn't been forthcoming about it.

But the lowest point has undoubtedly been the tragic loss of Flight 447. It made me realise that the A380 age has made us so brazen about crossing time zones and continents. When a jumbo jet disappears into thin air without so much as a distress call, you're reminded both of your mortality and your utter insignificance in the universe's larger scheme of things.