New air passenger-friendly norms soon

Domestic air passengers will soon be able to avail full refunds and additional compensation for flight delays, cancellations as the government on Tuesday put in the public domain a new 'passenger charter' for eliciting comments, suggestions before notifying them.

The new air passenger charter seeks to amend current norms for charges incurred by travellers on cancellation and rescheduling of air travel, among other things.

However, the new compensation structure will apply only if it is found that the flight delay or cancellation was caused by the airline concerned.

The new norms are expected to be notified by July 15 after public comments on the draft charter have been sought by the Ministry of Civil Aviation within a month. The "passenger charter' was withdrawn soon after its release by the ministry in early afternoon, with officials saying they will issue the draft rules "after correction."

As per the proposed entitlements, passengers will get full refunds, additional compensation and more in case an airline is found to be at fault for the delay or flight cancellation.

According to the Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha, the initiative is a part of an overall campaign "#Air Sewa".

The campaign has four elements namely -- passenger charter, DigiYatra, AirSewa App, Wi-Fi connectivity on-board -- to broad base and provide worldclass facilities and aminities to passengers.

On the on-board Wi-Fi services, Civil Aviation Secretary Rajiv Nayan Choubey said that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will soon able to give out licenses to airlines and service operators for the commencement of the facility.

Choubey said that DoT will be finalising the license conditions very shortly for the commencement of the on-board services.

"The DoT will be in a position to give out licenses within two months time from the date of application," Choubey said.

--IANS

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