Centre Orders IndiGo to Speed Up Compensation Amid Flight Cancellations

New Delhi: The Central Government ordered IndiGo Airlines to expedite relief measures to the affected airline customers due to a massive cancellation of flights. This comes as a result of rising complaints regarding flight cancellations and flight delays.

The directive was released by Aviation Secretary Samir Sinha in a high-level review meeting, where it was stressed that the agreed compensation should be administered to the affected passengers immediately, thereby leaving none of the eligible passengers behind. The government has also entrusted the monitoring of the compensation process to the DGCA. The process can be monitored through the Air Sevaa Grievance Redressal Portal.

Under the relief package, travel vouchers worth Rs 10,000 will start being distributed from December 26 for the badly hit air commuters on the peak disruption days of Dec 3, 4, and 5, when thousands of passengers were left stranded at airport terminals for several hours. This will, in addition to the mandatory compensation of Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 as per existing government aviation guidelines.

The government's directive also states that the compensation payments must begin within a week for passengers who had booked their tickets directly through IndiGo's official website, with IndiGo required to extract relevant information from Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) and travel agents in order to compensate those who had booked their tickets through third-party ticketing websites.

As reported by IndiGo, the refund of all cancelled flights during the disruption has been initiated and processed in full, even though some passengers, particularly those who used OTAs, are still complaining of delays. These complaints triggered the government’s intervention in the compensation.

Approximately 4,354 flights have been cancelled across the country from December 1 to 9, with the bulk of cases registered in early December. Using some approximation, more than 380,000 passengers may be eligible for compensation, pushing the total payout further than Rs 376 crore.

Industry and consumer reactions alike are accepting of the steps taken by the government, which highlight that having timelines and mechanisms for enforcement is the key to protecting the rights of passengers against major service failures. Simultaneously, the sectors are expected to keep moving ahead on the path of regaining stability for smoother services against such eventualities in the future.

The regulatory supervision by the DGCA, in addition to the directives from the Ministry, indicates that there has been a focus on the safety and accountability of passengers in the aviation industry in India, in the wake of the normalisation of flight activities.

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