The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) asked Air India to pay a fine of Rs 10,00,000 after finding that the airline has is not following the rules for denying boarding to the passengers who were holding confirmed tickets and who were reported on time at the airport.
Arun Kumar, DGCA head, says, “Recently they have warned airlines against not following regulations in this regard and ordered surprise checks across the airport in last few week”. Also they have warned AI to start following the rules or else strict action against them would be initiated. DGCA in a statement said, “During our surveillance at Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Delhi, specific instances were detected were airline was not following the regulation. A show-cause notice was issued to AI and a personal hearing given. It appears the airline does not have policy in this regard and is not paying any compensation to hapless passengers, whose numbers can be anybody’s guess”.
The regulator had in 2010 put in place penalties that airlines are required to pay passengers in cases of wrong denial of boarding, sudden flight cancellation and long delays. In case of overbooking, airlines are first supposed to seek volunteers who may be okay with going on subsequent flights. No compensation needs to be paid if an alternative flight is arranged within an hour of the originally booked one, says the civil aviation requirement (CAR).
But if that is not the case, airlines are required to compensate passengers by paying “200% of booked one-way basic fare plus airline fuel charge, subject to maximum of Rs 10,000, in case airline arranges alternative flight that is scheduled to depart within 24 hours of the booked scheduled departure”.
