Passengers could be compensated up to Rs 20,000 for flight delays, cancellations

Air travellers could be paid a compensation of up to Rs 20,000 for flight delays and cancellations and Rs 5000 for being denied boarding, a draft passenger charter has proposed. The charter, framed by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, is expected to be placed in public domain soon following a final round of meeting with the stakeholders, officials said.

Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey had said last week that the easy-to-understand passenger charter would mention all entitlements of an air traveller as the existing regulations of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the aviation watchdog, with regard to compensation were not "passenger-friendly". "Therefore, our ministry is working on an easy-to-understand passenger charter in which we will be capturing all the entitlements that passengers have with regard to the service they should expect from the amount paid," he had said. The draft proposal includes full refund if the delay is over six hour.

The compensation amount could be as high as Rs 20,000 if passengers miss connecting flights due to airline cancellations during the initial leg of the journey, the charter has proposed. In case of denial of boarding, the compensation could be Rs 5000 as such instances of have seen a sharp rise in the recent past, the officials said, adding the existing rules on this count remain flexible.

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