Officers in business class, minister flies economy

NEW DELHI: This is possibly the only thing which can make business class worse than economy class — you travelling in those plush comfortable seats when your big boss is in the cattle section at the rear of the same aircraft! This is exactly what happened with senior tourism ministry officials recently when they were flying from Delhi to Bhubaneswar with their newly-appointed minister of state (independent charge) K J Alphons.

The bureaucrat-turned-politician prefers to travel economy class. But in accordance with their entitlement, the tourism ministry delegation headed by Alphons was booked to fly Air India business class. As per his habit, Alphons got his ticket changed to economy.

“On the flight, top ministry officials were seated in business class as per their entitlement. The minister took his seat in the economy class. After landing in Bhubaneswar when the top officials, which included a joint secretary, director-general and additional DG of the ministry, alighted from the aircraft, they found the minister on the tarmac. Puzzled that they did not see the minister in the business section, they hurriedly inquired and were told that Alphons had flown economy class of the same flight,” said sources.


After this episode, tourism officials first check which flight their minister is travelling and then accordingly book their own tickets. Humble by nature since his bureaucracy days, Alphons did not want to talk about this issue and in fact requested that this episode not be written about as he did not want to ‘embarrass’ anyone.

On this issue, all he told TOI was: “They (the top officials) are entitled to travel business class, which is fine. I did not want to embarrass anyone. When travelling alone, I will continue travelling economy class only.”

Alphons, like several present Cabinet ministers, does not take protocol at airports while boarding flights and takes the bus used by other passengers to board aircraft.