Mumbai: ‘In India, the passenger is always the loser’

Two sisters aboard IndiGo flight 6E 228 from Mumbai to Guwahati were forcibly deboarded due to overbooking on Tuesday and endured a ninehour ordeal at Mumbai airport Srushti and Shravani Rithe travelling for a workshop to Assam found themselves stranded without any arrangements as IndiGo officials failed to provide them with an alternative flight to their destinationSrushti Rithe said ldquoMy sister and I booked a flight for Jorhat airport a connecting flight from Guwahati airport The flight from Mumbai airport was scheduled for a 540 am departure on January 16 The flight was already delayed by an hour My boarding pass was scanned and I was allowed to enter the plane but my sisterrsquos boarding pass was not getting scanned After the queue was completed they rescanned my sisterrsquos pass and let us inrdquoThe stranded passengers were left without basic necessities such as water breakfast Representation picldquoAfter entering the plane my sister was not seen anywhere On looking at the entrance bay I found out that she was talking to the air hostess On enquiry I learnt that the seat she had was also given to someone else My sister called me with my bag and we deboarded the flight Surprisingly while explaining the situation the Indigo official said lsquoMadam there are 186 seats and 188 passengers You need to deboard the flightrsquo We had to deboard the flight against our will On deboarding an Indigo official told us that they would make sure a seat on another flight would be arranged He asked us to exit the boarding and meet the Indigo supervision deskrdquo she addedTo add to the passengersrsquo woes the airline did not comply with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation DGCA guidelines regarding passenger rights which explicitly state that in cases of deboarding due to overbooking the airline is obligated to arrange an alternative flight for affected passengers Describing their ordeal Srushti said ldquoCISF personnel were very helpful and called the Indigo representative to come to the gate We were stranded at the Mumbai airport for about nine hours We tried enquiring multiple times about a replacement flight but the only answer we received every hour from various officials of Indigo was lsquoWe are trying to arrange for a replacement flightrsquo At around noon an official from Indigo came and said lsquoWe do not have any flight till 820 tomorrow January 17 Is it ok if we book a seat for that flightrsquo On hearing this I said that my threeday workshop is starting from the 17th If I take a flight on the 17th I will already be a day late for the workshop I asked the official to initiate the refund processrdquo By the time the refund was given and the luggage was handed over to the sisters it was already 1240 pmThe stranded passengers were left without basic necessities such as water and breakfast a clear violation of DGCA regulations To add to the woes the Rithe sisters also claimed that there was a lack of communication from Indigo staff regarding the status of their flight arrangements leaving them in a state of confusion and frustrationShravani Rithe the younger sister expressed her dissatisfaction saying ldquoI had written to the DGCA via mail around 9 am when we were already stranded I hope the DGCA takes stringent action against the airlines I am also going to file a formal complaint against this We had to miss our threeday workshop only because the airlines overbooked the flight This is not at all acceptablerdquoAviation expert and aviation rights activist Adv Yashwant Shenoy said ldquoPassengers are always losers in India DGCA is controlled by airlines and will never come to the passengerrsquos rescue The commuter at maximum can file a lawsuit against the airlines in the consumer court for demanding compensation for their loss of valuable time and the trouble caused to them by the airlines No passenger would willingly fight a decadeold battle in courts to claim a few thousand which is why airlines tend to exploit their passengers more and morerdquo Emphasising the importance of new rules to help passengers he added ldquoThere are no stringent rules for inconveniences caused to the passenger by an airline This is why the airlines always exploit the passengers DGCA needs to come up with more stringent guidelines and make sure that the airlines follow themrdquoAnother aviation expert requesting anonymity said ldquoIn this case it was only a workshop What if someone had to attend a court case on the morning of January 17 instead of attending the workshop and they were slapped with a monetary fine for not attending the court proceeding Who will bear this monetary fine for the error of an airline It is the total responsibility of the airline to ensure passengers reach their destination They cannot be left stranded this wayrdquo9No of hours the duo was stranded at the airport186No of seats on flight188No of passengers boardedIndigo claimsAn Indigo official told midday ldquoThe flight was overbooked resulting in the deboarding of the two passengers A refund was processed when they refused to take a ticket to a flight scheduled the next morning stating they had to be at a workshoprdquo When asked about the compensation the passenger was entitled to according to DGCA guidelines and if any refreshments were served during the waiting time for an alternate flight the official said ldquoA compensation was not issued besides the refund We currently have no other data from the airport due to the chaos of flights being delayed because of the weather conditions in many parts of IndiardquoDGCA guidelines as per Civil Aviation Requirements CAR Section 3 Series M Part IV suggest that ldquoin case of a flight being overbooked leading to involuntary deboarding of passengers the passenger is entitled to compensation of in case passenger does not opt for an alternate flight refund of the full value of ticket and compensation equal to 400 per cent of booked oneway basic fare plus airline fuel charge subject to a maximum of Rs 20000rdquo