Airlines saving lakhs a year on ‘denied boarding’ payout | India News
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Under DGCA norms, if an airline cannot put the passenger on another flight that departs within an hour of the original flight, it should pay compensation. But that is not what happens on ground.
“The airline staffer was rude and dismissive. She said the airline has a right to overbook and offload passengers and that they would refund my fare. That was all. But they gave no documentary evidence that showed that I had reached the check in counter on time and was offloaded. On what basis was my office to apply for a refund?” said Chatterjee. She booked another ticket with another airline, and returned to the previous airline counter, which was when the airline transferred Rs 10,000 to her account as compensation. Under DGCA norms, though, she should have been paid Rs 20,000 as she was not accommodated on an alternative flight.
While she at least received compensation, DGCA data on passengers denied boarding and amounts spent by airlines for facilities and compensation indicate that many are not paid properly. For instance: in 2022, May had the highest number of denied boarding cases, with 1,119 passengers being offloaded. An airline-wise break-up though shows how little each passenger on an average was paid. Alliance Air, for instance, spent only Rs 250 per passenger. If it’s assumed that the airline followed DGCA norms, only two possibilities arise. Either the airline got volunteers who agreed to give up their seats for a pittance or the airline managed to book all its involuntarily offloaded passengers within an hour of their original flight and so didn’t need to pay compensation. Last year, the DGCA fined Air India for not paying compensation to offloaded passengers. Air India did not even have a system in place for such payments.
TOI sought comments from all airlines for this report. SpiceJet said that it pays compensation according to DGCA guidelines. Others, meanwhile, did not respond.
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