90% air passengers want govt to penalise airlines for flight delays, cancellations: Survey

Amid incidents of chaos at airports due to late takeoffs caused by dense fog, a survey has found that about 70 per cent of air passengers faced either cancellations or rescheduled flights by various airlines in the past one year. "7 in 10 flyers surveyed say they have had a cancelled or rescheduled flight once or more this year by various airlines due to internal operational reasons," said the survey conducted by LocalCircles.

Of these, 9 of 10 travellers want the government to mandate airlines to pay at least 25-50 per cent value of tickets to them in case of rescheduling or cancellation of flights due to low load factor or internal reasons.

The passengers, as per the survey, said airlines deny boarding to passengers if they are even a few minutes late and collect additional amounts in fare differences while at the same time do not incur any penalties for delaying, rescheduling or cancelling flights for internal airline reasons.

"There is a need for the regulator to step in and introduce appropriate penalties for airlines in such scenarios as it may well push airlines to ensure they are better prepared with appropriate resources and thereby minimise delays," the passengers said. "This is likely to improve on-time performance of the entire aviation ecosystem and thereby raise air passenger satisfaction levels in India."

In the last few days, hundreds of flights were diverted and several others were cancelled due to zero visibility caused by dense fog.

In December last year, the Ministry of Civil Aviation issued guidelines, saying that the airlines have to facilitate affected passengers due to cancellations and delays in flights in accordance with the Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR).

Under the provisions of CAR, the ministry said, the airline has to provide, in case of cancellation, an alternate flight or compensation in addition to the full refund of air ticket. Additionally, the airline shall provide meals and refreshments to the passengers who have already reported for their original flight at the airport while waiting for the alternate flight.

In case of a flight delay, the airline is required to provide meals and refreshments, an alternate flight/full refund of the ticket to the passenger or hotel accommodation (including transfers) depending on the total flight delay.

However, the ministry said that the airline shall not be obliged to compensate in cases where the cancellation and delay is caused by a force majeure event i.e. extraordinary circumstance(s) beyond the control of the airline.