Government releases passenger charter specifying rights of air travellers

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Moneycontrol News 

Delay or cancellation in flight operations could be compensated either with a free meal or full refund of the ticket according to the new passenger charters rules revealed by the government on February 27.

During the Aviation Conclave 2019, minister of civil aviation, Suresh Prabhu, revealed the new rules which laid out rights of passengers in case of delayed, cancelled or diverted flights among other issues.

For delayed flights, a passenger would be entitled to free meal and refreshments in case the flight is delayed by up to 4 hours. S/he would be provided an option of an alternate flight or full refund of the ticket in case the delay is for more than 6 hours. The passenger would further be provided free hotel accommodation in case the flight is delayed by more than six hours and was scheduled between 20:00 and 3:00 hours.

For a cancelled flight, which was informed two weeks before the original departure, an airline has to provide ticket refund or alternate flight to the passenger as acceptable to him/her.

Coupled with this, in case any passenger misses a connecting flight on the same ticket, s/he will be provided compensation up to Rs 10,000 subject to certain conditions.

"Additionally, if the passenger has already reported for the original flight and while you wait for the alternate flight, the airline must provide free-of-charge meals and refreshments in relation to waiting time," the rules said.

For over-booked flights, the new rules state that the airline must arrange an alternate flight within one hour of the original flight on which boarding was denied due to over-booking. If such a flight is not available then the passenger has to be compensated up to 400 percent of booking price (one way) subject to certain conditions.

The rules further state that a passenger has the right to receive refund of statutory taxes, user development and passenger service fees levied by the airlines is case s/he cancels the ticket. The right to refund will be subject to the airlines internal policy in case of a foreign airline.

The airlines will be liable to pay Rs 20 lakh in case a person dies on-board or suffers bodily injury only due to the fault of the airline.

Apart from this, compensation for lost baggage or cargo will be up to Rs 20,000 or 350 kg respectively.