Scoot, a budget airline owned by Singapore Airlines (SIA), has drawn flak from a customer after his checked luggage went missing.

Facebook user Arun Somasekharan, an Indian national, took a Scoot flight to Thiruvananthapuram – the capital of Kerala – but was informed that his checked luggage had been sent to Hyderabad, the capital of Telangana – a different state altogether.

Reporting the matter on Scoot’s Facebook page, the netizen wrote that he was “made to run [from] pillar to post every day for the past 1 week” before his baggage was found by baggage services after an eight-day wait.

While baggage services brought the luggage back to Thiruvananthapuram via flight, it insisted that the customer should collect the baggage at the airport instead of delivering it to his address. He wrote: “I do have to say that they insisted that I collect the recovered baggage from the airport vs delivering it to my address. I had get my 78 year old Father to collect it as I was not at home. This is unacceptable!!!”

The Thiruvananthapuram baggage services apparently told the customer that “SCOOT did nothing to help in this process…which I find even more disappointing.”

Calling on Scoot to “make amends to your work process and improve and make passenger experience more palatable in all services vs just offering cheap fares,” the netizen asserted: “After this experience I will think twice about using SCOOT and will not recommend them to my friends and acquaintances.”

Scoot replied to the customer’s complaint. The budget airline said: “Hi Arun, we are sorry to hear about your experience and we are glad that you have managed to receive your baggage safely.

“Your feedback is important to us and we are committed to focus on the issues identified in order to improve our service to you. We seek your understanding and we look forward to serving you better. Thank you.”

SCOOT After you sent my baggage wrongly to HYD on 31 May 2019. I had lodged a lost baggage report on my arrival at TVM…

Posted by Arun Somasekharan on Monday, 10 June 2019

Last month, SIA reported that Scoot swung from profit to loss in the last fiscal year, recording an operating loss of S$15 million, compared to an operating profit of S$78 million last year.

SIA attributed Scoot’s S$93 million decline to the cost of expansion outweighing revenue growth.

Identifying the slowdown in the rate of growth of Chinese travellers as a contributing factor to Scoot’s poor performance, SIA said that while Scoot showed growth in passenger traffic (14.6%) and growth of capacity (15.1%), this was not enough to counter the high costs of expansion and fuel.

Further, “unusual levels of operational disruptions, largely relating to 787 engine issues” also impacted Scoot’s performance.

-/TISG

https://theindependent.sg.sg/singapore-airlines-profit-plunges-by-a-hefty-47-5-despite-achieving-highest-annual-revenue-to-date/