The airline industry provides service to virtually every corner of the globe, and has

been an integral part of the creation of a global economy. The airline industry itself is
a major economic force, both in terms of its own operations and its impacts on
related industries.
In the past decade, travel by air has increased by 7% per year, for both - business
and leisure. Large aircrafts like the Boeing 747 have made it convenient for people to
travel at affordable costs. Governments in developing nations give impetus to the
development of infrastructure to lure tourists from prosperous countries and add to
their national economies.
Commercial flights began within a decade of the invention of aircraft in the early 20th
century. There was a surplus of aircraft and pilots worldwide after World Wars I and
II. Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-Aktiengesellschaft (DELAG), the world's first airline, was
founded on November 16, 1909 with government assistance, and operated airships
manufactured by The Zeppelin Corporation. Its headquarters were in Frankfurt. By
the 1950s, airline companies created the framework of international travel and
commerce that exists to this day.
Today, the global airline industry consists of over 2000 airlines operating more than
25,000 aircraft, providing service to over 3800 airports. In 2013, the worlds airlines
flew almost 28 million scheduled flight departures and carried over 3.1 billion
passengers.
Liberalization in the air transport industry has greatly benefited passengers: they now
enjoy lower fares and a wider choice of carriers and services than in the past.
However, liberalization is not enough. Other measures are needed to protect
passengers' interests and ensure that they fully benefit from the industry.
Though there is liberalization in the airline industry, it is also very highly regulated
due to its nature of being highly capital and labour intensive. It is governed not only
by international agencies but also individual national agencies. The International Civil
Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA)
are two such international regulators and DGCA is the national regulator.

Airline Industry is a Service Industry in which the Customer is the King and is very
necessary to be remembered. Customer Satisfaction is the only motto of the Service
Industry. This customer satisfaction is achieved by providing the best quality of
service in various aspects like passenger handling, baggage handling, on time
performance and so on. The quality of service that is provided becomes the top most
priority of the industry due its nature.
Globalization has caused a great impetus in the growth of this industry. Sometimes
there are deficiencies in the quality of service. These deficiencies are sometimes
created by human factors or are nature driven, but nonetheless need to be properly
addressed. As air services are generally costly, the customers should not feel
exploited. The grievances hence should be addressed timely, to retain the
customers.
Not only that, today due to globalization and more persons becoming educated and
informed the customers have become more aware and conscious about the their
rights and the responsibilities of the airline industry. When a deficiency is created
and not addressed appropriately by the airline they get frustrated and develop
distrust against that airline which causes direct and indirect loses to the airline.
Since the responsibilities and obligations of airlines towards the passengers are
more than the airport operators this project will focus on the airlines obligations and
their responsibilities towards the passengers.
In this project, it will be seen what these deficiencies in the Quality of Service are,
how there are various international and national Acts, Agencies and regulators that
make sure the customers are not exploited and that their grievances are redressed.
This project will also focus on what are the liabilities of the Airlines with respect to
redressing customer grievances. It will also consist some of the past cases of
customer grievances and how they were redressed.
It will also touch upon the Air Passenger Association of India which is a nonprofit
organization for the welfare of the Indian air passenger.