A day after 53 Indians spent an entire night in the basement immigration hall of Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport,  the Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) has written a letter to Air France seeking an explanation from the carrier.

“I had one of my lady passengers who witnessed racial discrimination recently on a flight from New York,” said Vasuki Sundaram, secretary of TAFI’s western chapter. “It was one of those relatively empty flights and the airhostess was asking all passengers whether they would prefer to shift to seats which had more leg room.

While she asked all the ‘whites’ for their preference, she conveniently ignored this lady. Only when the lady raised a hue and cry that she had paid as much as the others for the tickets did the airhostess ask her,” added Sundaram.

“Earlier Indians used to be scared to speak out. I’ve had this experience on a flight when the airhostess was smiling at everybody but stopped smiling when she looke at me,” said Sundaram.

“Therefore when we read about yesterday’s incident, we wrote a letter to the carrier seeking an explanation. It looks like a case of racial discrimination,” she added.

However, the question that remains is are Indians still keen to travel European carriers despite the opening up of the Indian skies and the plethora of choices available to them in terms of international connectivity. “There has definitely been a shift,” saidSundaram. “Earlier the psychology of Indians was that foreign airlines provide better service but now even the Air India Mumbai-NY flight is good,” she said.

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