PANAJI
South Goa District Consumer Forum has directed Air India to pay a flyer Rs 15,000 as compensation and damages for a delayed flight.
The complainant Rahul Verekar had booked tickets from Coimbatore to Mumbai for February 5, 2016, through their airlines official website. He had also booked ticket of Jet Airways connecting flight from Mumbai to Vadodara which was scheduled for departure at 7.20 pm on the same day.
The Jet Airways flight was scheduled to arrive in Vadodara at 8.25 pm.
However, when Verekar reached Coimbatore airport, he was informed by the staff of Air India that the flight had been delayed. He was shocked to know that the flight which was scheduled to take off at 2.45 pm on February 5, 2016, was delayed by 2 hours and 15 minutes.
When he tried to inquire about the reasons for the delay, the staff of Air India Airlines at Coimbatore airport refused to provide any information.
Upon realizing that he will not be in a position to reach in time to take the next connecting flight from Mumbai airport, Verekar decided to cancel his connecting flight booking of Jet Airways. He approached the Air India station manager and Air India assistant manager at Coimbatore and requested them to arrange for accommodation in Mumbai for the same night, as he had to miss his connecting flight to Vadodara on account of the delay and had to spend the entire night in Mumbai.
The staff of Air India turned down the request.
Unhappy with their services of Air India, the complainant filed a consumer complaint under Section 12 of Consumer Protection Act before the District Consumer Forum, South Goa, at Margao seeking compensation and damages.
Advocate Savio Noronha argued on behalf of the complainant.
Adv Noronha proved that there was deficiency on part of Air India on account of the delay in flight. He further argued that despite requesting for accommodation, the staff of Air India denied to give any sort of assistance and hence such conduct on its part amounted to deficiency of service.
The defence counsel said that the delay caused a lot of inconvenience to the complainant, who was forced to spend the entire night at
Mumbai airport and had to book a new flight from Mumbai to Vadodara only the
next day.
After hearing the arguments of Adv Noronha on behalf of the complainant and counsel for Air India, the Forum directed that airline to pay an amount of Rs 5,000 as compensation for inconvenience and mental agony caused to the complainant.
It also directed the airline to pay an amount of Rs 8,672 to the complainant along with interest of seven per cent.
