- Many passengers pay high fares to reach destinations on time but face long delays
- Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha urged the Civil Aviation Minister to consider passenger compensation
- He proposed monetary compensation or full refunds for flight delays exceeding one hour
Many passengers purchase expensive flight tickets to reach their destinations on time, Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha said in Parliament on Monday. He added that it could be for a job interview, a business meeting, or visiting someone in a hospital. However, many times passengers have to face hours of delay, and they end up suffering because of it.
"Today in Parliament, I asked the Civil Aviation Minister whether they are working towards a compensation framework for passengers affected by significant flight delays," Chadha later wrote on X.
In his speech, he said that passengers should get monetary compensation or a full refund in case of such delays. "A delay up to one hour is still understandable, but a longer delay must have compensation," he said.
The AAP MP added that if airlines can charge passengers for excess baggage, passengers too should have the right to be compensated for flight delays. In the caption, he wrote, "1 extra kg of baggage and the airline bills you exorbitantly. But 4 hours of flight delay, and the airline owes you nothing. Airlines track your baggage weight to the gram. Why don't they value your time to the hour? If they can charge you by the gram, they must compensate you by the hour."
Many Indian flyers take to social media to complain about frequent flight delays. Previously, in February, a Nepal-bound Air India Express flight was delayed for around 18 hours at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru, triggering massive chaos and protests by the passengers.
Before that, 200 IndiGo passengers were stuck for almost 5 hours on a Chennai-Singapore flight - a period that exceeded the actual duration of the international journey they were scheduled to take.
