Air Arabia, Thomas Cook to pay Rs 6.5L to customer

A foreign airline and a tour company have been directed by the apex consumer commission to pay Rs 6.5 lakh to a passenger for deficiency in quality of services rendered and not informing him about the cancellation of a flight.
The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) held Air Arabia and Thomas Cook (India) Ltd guilty of deficiency in the quality of services rendered to their customer and directed them pay Rs two lakh as compensation along with refund of Rs 4.5 lakh towards the tour package.
"The petitioners, Air Arabia and Thomas Cook (India) Ltd, can be held guilty of deficiency in service in the quality of service rendered to the complainants," an NCDRC bench, comprising members Rekha Gupta and Anup K Thakur, said.

The bench dismissed the revision petitions filed by airline and the tour company challenging the order of the Chhattisgarh state commission.
According to the complaint, Chhattisgarh-resident Pagdalu Prashant Naidu had booked a tour package to Kenya through Thomas Cook (India) Ltd, which was supposed to start on May 21, 2014 from Mumbai airport.
From Mumbai airport, the complainant and his family were to be given a connecting flight from Sharjah to Nairobi, the complaint said.

It further said when the family reached Mumbai airport, the airline officials informed them that the connecting flight from Sharjah has been cancelled and they would have to wait till the next day for the rescheduled flight.

The complaint alleged that the arrangements in Kenya were also bad and as a result, they had to spend one day in Nairobi doing nothing.
The vehicle provided to the complainant in Kenya was also in a bad shape and broke down causing delay in the sightseeing trip. They had to ask for a lift to reach the airport, it alleged.
The district forum had directed the airlines and tour company to pay Rs five lakh to the complainant as compensation, besides refunding the package amount.
This was challenged before Chhattisgarh state commission which had partially allowed the tour company's revision petition and reduced the compensation to Rs two lakh from Rs five lakh.

The counsel for Thomas Cook argued that they were not responsible for the cancellation of the flight.
However, the NCDRC held that it was an admitted fact that the hotel and other services provided in Kenya were below standards. It also upheld the forum's decision to award Rs 10,000 towards the cost of litigation.