Letters: Taming domestic airlines

With reference to "Airlines to pay huge compensation for flight cancellation from August 1" (July 18), a deterring provision for the payment of some reasonable amount of compensation by the domestic airlines, in the event of cancelling a flight or denying boarding to a flier, was long overdue. But, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) deserves fliers' appreciation as it is better late than never.

The report statistically reveals that the DGCA's new guidelines (to be effective from August 1) provide for payment of up to Rs 10,000 to a flier in the case of cancelling/delaying a flight beyond two hours, while the renewed compensation for not allowing a passenger to board the flight would jack up to Rs 20,000. Ironically, the extant rules offer a meagre compensation of up to Rs 4,000 for both denied boarding and cancelling a flight.

Since the revised compensation has been arrived at after extensive consultations with all stakeholders including the airlines, it may be significant to observe that the "revised" norms clearly provide that the compensation amount in case of cancellation/delay of flights will be lower of the two, that is either the booked one-way basic fare plus fuel charge or the compensation payable (Rs 5,000, Rs 7,500 or Rs 10,000 as the case may be) based on one hour, two hours or more than two hours of block time respectively apart from refund of ticket. Why the lower of the two?

Interestingly, the recent DGCA guidelines had inter alia provided that in case any passenger cancels her air ticket, the airlines can deduct only the "basic fare plus fuel charge" and all other payments including various taxes must be refunded to the passenger. This concept truly matches the revised norms for compensation. The decision to impose a huge penalty in case of denial of boarding must be welcomed as resorting to "over bookings" by the domestic airlines, which constitutes an unprofessional commercial practice (perhaps aimed at "surge pricing"), can't be condoned.

Kumar Gupt, Panchkula

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