Passenger Pangs

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) wants to establish a ‘Passenger Charter’ expect airlines to fight this tooth and nail.

DGCA’s plan to roll-out a passenger charter was borne out of ridiculous cancellation charges that airlines had begun to impose. In some circumstances, cancellation charges were so high that it left the passenger with under a hundred rupees back, so ridiculous in fact that it made no sense to cancel the ticket. The proposal to allow free cancellation within 24 hours of booking is therefore a smart one by the DGCA as well as forcing airlines to relook at their ridiculous cancellation policies. Many of the other proposals however will be fought by the airlines, such as the proposals for full refunds, because the airlines will (rightly) claim that in some circumstances such as the severe storms that afflicted Delhi, India’s busiest airport by far, recently the airlines can not be held responsible for an act of god. 

And what if a four-hour delay is announced in advance because of a VIP movement, for example, in Delhi during rehersals for and during Republic Day airspace is routinely shut down as it is whenever the Prime Minister or President flies inIJ Should an airline be held responsible for thatIJ Airlines should be held responsible for delays in their control, the cancellations and delays thanks to the Pratt and Whitney engines that impacted IndiGo and GoAir is a result of their commercial decisions and they should compensate passengers over there. Technical issues causing delays is an airlines fault and airlines should be allowed to classify these as an act of god. Other delays due to non-availability of staff at major is inexcusable, however staff clocking out of hours due to rolling delays should not be pegged on airlines. 

While this proposed charter will be debated for hours, there is no doubt that some moves are very passenger friendly. But, India’s aviation growth has been supercharged by affordable airfares and some of these decisions will have an adverse impact on airfares in India. How adverse, we do not know as yet, it may be less than a hundred rupees on an average ticket, so it might be a price worth paying for the flying community.