Good news flyers! No cancellation fee if tickets cancelled within 24 hours

In what can come as a respite as for the flyers, Minister of State for Civil Aviation on Tuesday announced that no cancellation fee will be charged on flight tickets cancelled within 24 hours of booking.

"No cancellation charges will be levied if the tickets are cancelled within 24 hours of booking, provided the ticket is booked 96 hours before flight departure," said Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Aviation.

"If a flight is cancelled and it is the airlines' fault, then the passenger has to be compensated or ticket has to be refunded. If a flight is delayed, the passenger will be compensated in various ways," he added.

He further said that Aadhaar will be required for the enrollment to use 'Digi Yatra' for identification verification.

"To use Digi Yatra, Aadhaar will be needed only at the time of enrollment. So, that we can identify you. We are working on other digital ID's too," he added.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation in June last year added a digital experience for air travellers through its Digi Yatra platform. This initiative aims to ease the security and boarding procedure by using Aadhaar card or passport number and a digital mode to verify passengers.

'DigiYatra' is an industry-led initiative coordinated by the ministry in line with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Digital India's vision to transform the nation into a digitally empowered society.

Passengers can optionally link their Aadhaar to airlines and other ecosystem players at the time of booking for faster airport entry and automated check-ins without requiring any paper-based interventions.