The Civil Aviation Ministry is likely to announce new norms for ticket cancellation, baggage and denied boarding, amid the increasing number of complaints on these issues. The move also comes after domestic air passengers’ body Air Passengers Association of India (APAI) had written to the Civil Aviation Ministry and aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) requesting them to address these issues including adequate compensation to fliers in the eventuality of their flight getting cancelled or delayed.
At present a passenger gets between ₹2,000-4,000 depending upon the duration of the delay. The compensation ranges in the same amount if boarding is denied. .
“We are revisiting regulations concerning these issues,” a senior official said. The revamped norms are expected to be made public soon, the official added.
Significantly, after domestic airlines including the largest airline by market share IndiGo and Government-run Air India hiked its cancellation charges, the DGCA had sought an explanation from the carriers over the issue.
“We have been trying to compare (ticket cancellation charges) with international trends ... It (analysis of cancellation charges) will take more time,” DGCA chief M Sathiyavathy had said last month.
In April, budget carrier IndiGo had done away with the slab system for calculating ticket cancellation fee and made it uniform at ₹2,250. National carrier Air India too had in February imposed a hike of ₹500 for cancelling its flight tickets, which now stands at ₹2,000 per ticket.
“We certainly welcome the (proposed) move. But at the same time we want a fool proof system in place. If a passenger misses his connecting flight he should also be compensated,” D Sudhakara Reddy of APAI said.
According to DGCA, more than two-thirds of the airline flights in April were cancelled due to technical and operational reasons. Also, a total of 46,833 passengers were affected due to the flight cancellations, delays and denied boarding, involving a compensation of ₹1.33 crore during April this year.