MUMBAI: Oops! Don’t jump the gun! That must be the lesson that state-owned airline Air India must have learned following the recent slugfest it got involved in on Twitter a couple of days ago.  Air India – normally known to be sedate and a quiet operator - had fired a salvo at rival private carrier Indigo Airlines by posting two pictures which stated “We raise our hands only to say Namaste!” and “Unbeatable Service” on the evening of 7 November.

The two mischievous statements were targeted at Indigo which has been getting a lot of bad buzz and press thanks to a viral video (posted on 7 November) of one of its staffers manhandling and beating a customer.  In the past few months, fliers  have come out and bashed  the airline for the poor quality of customer service. In a recent incident, it did not allow Indian badminton star PV Sindhu to bring her sports gear on board and forced her to have it included in the checked in luggage.

Needless to say the posts resulted in a lot of chuckles amongst Twitter users, something which is not known to be associated with the public sector airline. On most occasions, it is the butt of wise cracks and jokes for its service.

What forced the normally quiet airline to get into a round of fisticuffs? Well it could very well have had to do with the posting of a picture -  purportedly by Jet Airways that stated “We beat our competition, not you” that went viral. 

Seeing an opportunity of creating excitement amongst Twitterati, Air India too followed with its two posts later in the day.

To its chagrin, Jet Airways issued a clarification on  its Twitter handle  (236,000 followers)  stating: “Jet Airways did not commission the creative being shared on social media platforms, in context of a recent event concerning another domestic airline. The creative does not reflect our philosophy and ethos and is in fact, in bad taste.”

Air India was thus left in a quandary? Was it acting in bad taste? Apparently, someone thought so as its posts were deleted this morning. 

The deletions caused Twitterati to question Air India  as to why was it backing off?

As they say you can’t win ‘em all.