The commission said that a delay of almost 24 hours in departure of flight seems to have been caused because the opponent (Air India) at New Delhi Airport did not follow the scheduled mandatory requirements, which should have been done before departure of the flight.
Mumbai: A district consumer court has asked Air India to pay Rs 85,000 compensation to a 33-year-old man who missed work because of a 24-hour delay in Bangkok-Mumbai flight in 2018. It was alleged that while the Air India fight was to depart Bangkok on a Sunday evening, and land in Mumbai on early Monday, but it took off from Thailand on late Monday evening.
The Mumbai Suburban District Consumer Commission said that as the complainant, Mohit Nigam, pointed out to deficiency in service, he is entitled to get compensation for physical and mental agony and loss of work. Nigam produced before the commission information received through a Right To Information (RTI) query which showed that the delay was due to the airline’s negligence.
The fight was to arrive from New Delhi to Bangkok and then depart to Mumbai. Nigam said that he arrived at the airport three hours before the scheduled departure of 8 pm, collected his boarding pass and waited at the boarding gate but the flight was delayed. He added that the passengers were informed that flight would depart at 3 am and so everyone boarded the plane and waited for departure. However, later, it was announced that flight has been cancelled. This confusion continued till 5 am after which the fliers were provided accommodation.
The commission said that a delay of almost 24 hours in departure of flight seems to have been caused because the opponent (Air India) at New Delhi Airport did not follow the scheduled mandatory requirements, which should have been done before departure of the flight. “It was duty of the opponent to follow mandatory check-ups before departure of flight, in which they failed. The RTI document submitted by the complainant clearly establishes the mistake on the part of the opponent,” the commission added.
“As the complainant has pointed out deficiency in service of the opponent, he is entitled to get compensation for physical and mental agony, loss of work but not fully what he has prayed i.e. refund of ticket at both ends. It will be proper to impose costs of litigation upon the opponent,” the Commission said adding that it cannot be overlooked that this has caused inconvenience and mental agony to the complainant, for which he is entitled to be compensated.
No Refund on Flight Tickets
After announcing the compensation, the commission dismissed Nigam’s claims for a refund of the flight tickets. The commission noted that Nigam had travelled hassle-free from Mumbai to Bangkok. “The complainant’s claim for refund of ticket is not justified… It is not the case that the complainant had to bear additional expenses to purchase another air-ticket,” the commission said.
