Airline will have to pay Rs 10,000 fine if boarding is denied on valid ticket: DGCA

Travelers at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, India, on Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2021. India plans to raise 6 trillion rupees ($81 billion) by leasing out state-owned infrastructure assets over the next four years to fund new capital expenditure without pressuring government finances. The proposal involves handing assets including roads, railways, airports, sports stadiums, power transmission lines and gas pipelines to private operators.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on June 14 said that if a passenger holding a valid ticket is denied boarding, the airline will have to pay a compensation of upto Rs 10,000 to the traveller, if the airline is not able to arrange an alternate flight for the said passenger within an hour.

As part of its new guidelines, India's aviation regulator said that in the case of denied boarding to a passenger holding a valid ticket and having presented on time, airlines will have to pay a compensation of Rs 10,000, if alternate arrangement is made by the airline within next 24 hours.

However, for anything beyond 24 hours, a compensation upto Rs. 20,000 is laid down, the DGCA said.

The move by the aviation watchdog comes after it carried out a series of checks at Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Delhi airports and found specific instances where passengers were denied boarding by Air India.

“A show cause notice was issued to the Airline (Air India) and also a personal hearing was afforded,” the DGCA said in a press release.

The DGCA added that Air India until now did not have a specific policy for passengers being denied boarding.

“It appears that the Airline (Air India) does not have a policy in this regard and is not paying any compensation to hapless passengers, whose numbers can be anybody’s guess,” the DGCA said.

The DGCA has also imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh on Air India for denying boarding to passengers holding valid tickets and also instructed the airline to immediately put the systems in place to resolve the issue.

“After going through AI submissions, as part of enforcement action, the competent authority has levied a penalty of Rs. 10 Lakh. In addition, the Airline has been advised to immediately put the systems in place to resolve the issue failing which further action shall be taken by DGCA,” the aviation watchdog said in a statement.