Air India gets civil aviation ministry nod for ‘war’ on IndiGo
The fight between national carrier Air India (AI) and leading budget airline IndiGo is set to get bitter, as the civil aviation ministry has given the go ahead to AI, for posting advertisements in reply to those put up by IndiGo. These advertisements will come up at the Mumbai airport. AI now claims it will run a month-long campaign against IndiGo for directly using its name in ad posters in the airport.
“It’s going to be a campaign against IndiGo airlines now,” said an Air India official.
The development comes after AI was upset when it was asked to back off from the ad war between the two airlines, after being assured that Indigo would do the same. Sources say the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) has also asked an explanation from Indigo.
AI, according to sources, was assured that IndiGo would remove its hard-hitting poster from the airport if AI takes the first step. However, on Friday, September 30 IndiGo put up another poster in the Arrivals section of the International Terminal from where AI operates. According to senior officials, an upset AI asked the ministry to take action against IndiGo.
A senior AI official told this paper that the national carrier will shortly come up with an “aggressive” advertisement campaign.
The officer said, “The first poster was a general advertisement asking passengers to try Air India. It never mentioned anything related to the LCC (IndiGo) nor did it mention their name. Yet we had to face such a harsh poster from them.”
An AI spokesperson from Delhi, its headquarters, said, “Air India being the national carrier always behaves with grace and responsibility. The advertisement of a Low Cost Carrier is devoid of grace and displays its unethical conduct. We are not yet contemplating any legal action.”
On the other hand, a senior IndiGo airlines officer said, “The airline completely operates from the international terminal (T2). Then why did it put up a poster in the domestic terminal (1B) ”
