Airline fined for denying passenger to travel over single-name passport

This resident of Periamet was stopped from boarding the Gulf Air flight at Moscow airport because his passport had a single name

The Chennai North District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has directed the Gulf Air Airlines to compensate a former Tamil Nadu legislator for denying him travel at Moscow airport as his passport did not contain his surname.

The airlines has been directed to pay a compensation of about Rs 1.4 lakh with nine per cent interest per annum from the date of travel, to former MLA and advocate Nizamudeen, the affected passenger.

This resident of Periamet here was stopped from boarding the Gulf Air flight at Moscow airport because his passport had a single name.

On February 9, 2023, he was scheduled to travel by Gulf Air flight from Moscow to Dubai via Bahrain but was denied travel as his passport had contained only his name Nizamudeen without the surname. Nizamudeen claimed that he was allowed to board a flight from India to Moscow under the same name in the passport.

He had a meeting in Dubai the next day but the airline's ground staff was "inconsiderate" to his requests and made him wait for nearly one-and-a-half hours. He was put under immense stress and hardship due to the inordinate delay in reaching the UAE and this forced him to file a complaint.

The Commission led by D Gopinath and consisting members V Ramamurthy and Kavitha Kannan, recently found that the amendment to a key rule allowing passengers bearing a single name to travel if their family name appeared on another page in the travel document was not followed in the case of the former MLA.

The airlines was also directed to refund Rs 29,689, which was the cost of the ticket and pay Rs 1 lakh as compensation for deficiency in service, monetary loss, mental agony, and suffering, and a sum of Rs 10,000 towards the cost of litigation within two months, the commission said.