For the past few days, North and Central India has been witnessing a massive disruption in flights including cancellations and delays. Therefore, passengers are agitated by the various airlines, especially IndiGO. Things have started to turn ugly as well. Recently, passengers slapped a pilot inside the flight when he announced that the Delhi to Goa IndiGo flight was delayed by 13 hours. Not only this, but another video is doing rounds on social media in which a woman passenger can be seen demanding accommodation from the IndiGo Manager due to a flight delay as it was the middle of the night. However, the manager refused to provide any kind of accommodation to the passenger. Not only this, TMC Leader Saket Gokhale took to his official X handle and stated that IndiGo must be blamed and stated that he had written a letter to the Civil Aviation Secretary over unnecessary flight delays.
Now, the question arises what does the Civil Aviation Ministry of India suggest in case of flight delays or cancellations? Or simply, what are India flight delay compensation guidelines or India flight cancellation rules?
Flight cancellation or delay compensation rule-
India Civil Aviation Ministry on December 2023 issued a press release and explained flight cancellation or delay compensation guidelines-
The airline has to facilitate affected passengers due to cancellation & delay in flight in accordance with Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) Section 3, Series M, Part IV titled as "Facilities to be provided to passengers by airlines due to denied boarding, cancellation of flights and delays in flights".
Under the provisions of said CAR, the airline has to provide following:
I. In case of cancellation, the airlines shall either provide alternate flight or provide compensation in addition to the full refund of air ticket. Additionally, the airline shall provide meals and refreshments to the passengers who have already reported for their original flight at the airport while waiting for the alternate flight.
II. In case of delay in flight, the airline is required to provide meals and refreshments, an alternate flight/full refund of ticket to the passenger or hotel accommodation (including transfers) depending on the total flight delay.
Airline shall not be obliged to compensate in cases where the cancellation & delay is caused by a force majeure event i.e. extraordinary circumstance(s) beyond the control of the airline.
In case of overbooking of seats, the airline has to first ask volunteers to give up their seats. However, the airline must find a replacement flight within an hour of the original scheduled departure if the passenger refuses to board.
If this is not possible, the airline must reimburse the passenger with 200% of the booked one-way fare plus the airline fuel surcharge, which is capped at INR 10,000 if the airline has scheduled a flight within 24 hours.
If the alternate flight is offered more than 24 hours after the original departure time, the penalty increases to 400% of the booked one-way fare plus airline fuel charge and stays capped at INR 20,000.
It is pertinent to mention here that Air India has introduced the "Fog Care" initiative, which allows affected passengers to reschedule or cancel their flights without any additional charges.