Consumer rights of a flight passenger in India.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation under the Government of India is the sole authority for the aviation related issues in India. As a flight passenger, you have certain rights as consumer of the aviation service. In this article, I shall be discussing about the consumer rights of a flight passenger in India. Please read on.
Flight passengers, know your consumer rights in India.
At the present Indian Aviation industry is full of energy and brimming with some of the stiff competitions in the Aviation industry all over the world. There are aviation companies, which are in public sector like Air India, and Indian Airlines and the other private players are like Kingfisher, Indigo, Spicejet etc. As a flight passenger in any of the flights operated by these companies, you should know your consumer rights in India.
The consumer rights of a flight passenger in India are:
· A passenger should be made aware of facilities being provided by the airlines through their respective website;
· If a flight is cancelled, the amount paid by the passenger shall be refunded immediately by the airlines Office, if cash payment was made and positively within 7 days in case of payments made through Credit Card;
· Passengers who have not been informed at least 3 hours in advance about the cancellation of the flight on which they were scheduled to travel, shall be compensated by the airlines for the inconvenience, refund of ticket prices, if the passenger does not wish to travel and by facilities at the airport; and
· No airlines can refuse to carry persons traveling in a stretcher or incubator, when a person who will cater to their needs escorts them.
Detailed guidelines are available on Directorate General of Civil Aviation website viz., www[dot]dgca[dot]nic[dot]inContact information as a consumer flight passenger in India:
For more information about your consumer rights, you can contact the National Consumer Help Line No. 1800 – 11 – 4000 which is toll free telephone number. Otherwise, you can also contact the following telephone numbers: 011 – 27662955 / 27662956 / 27662957 / 27662958 for which normal telephone call charges will apply. These telephone numbers are available only from Monday to Saturday from 9.30 AM to 5.30 PM.
If you want to lodge a consumer complaint as a flight passenger, please contact the following address:
Government of India, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Good and Public Distribution, Depart of Consumer Affairs, Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi – 110001. Website: www[dot]fcamin[dot]nic[dot]in
It is imperative to know your consumer rights as a flight passenger and whenever necessary you should feel comfortable to assert for your consumer rights as flight passenger.
Many people unaware about the rights of passenger traveling by air in India. Civil aviation ministry Govt of India has put some guidelines for consumers' right. This article elaborates clearly about the consumers' rights of flight passengers.On can log on for more details about the rules and regulations in the website
www.dgca.nic.in
For any dispute with regard to the passengers problems one can address to Ministry of consumer affairs, Good & Public distribution, Department of Consumer Affair, Krishi Bhavan, New Delhi 110 001.
www.fcamin.nic.in