Mumbai: ‘In India, the passenger is always the loser’

Shravani Rithe (left) and Srushti Rithe, who were deboarded

Two sisters aboard IndiGo flight 6E 228 from Mumbai to Guwahati were forcibly deboarded due to overbooking on Tuesday, and endured a nine-hour ordeal at Mumbai airport. Srushti and Shravani Rithe, travelling for a workshop to Assam, found themselves stranded without any arrangements as IndiGo officials failed to provide them with an alternative flight to their destination.

Srushti Rithe said, "My sister and I booked a flight for Jorhat airport, a connecting flight from Guwahati airport. The flight from Mumbai airport was scheduled for a 5.40 am departure on January 16. The flight was already delayed by an hour. My boarding pass was scanned, and I was allowed to enter the plane, but my sister's boarding pass was not getting scanned. After the queue was completed, they rescanned my sister's pass and let us in."

The stranded passengers were left without basic necessities such as water, breakfast. Representation pic

"After entering the plane my sister was not seen anywhere. On looking at the entrance bay, I found out that she was talking to the air hostess. On enquiry, I learnt that the seat she had was also given to someone else. My sister called me with my bag, and we deboarded the flight. Surprisingly, while explaining the situation, the Indigo official said, ‘Madam, there are 186 seats and 188 passengers. You need to deboard the flight.' We had to deboard the flight against our will. On deboarding, an Indigo official told us that they would make sure a seat on another flight would be arranged. He asked us to exit the boarding and meet the Indigo supervision desk," she added.

To add to the passengers' woes, the airline did not comply with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) guidelines regarding passenger rights, which explicitly state that in cases of deboarding due to overbooking, the airline is obligated to arrange an alternative flight for affected passengers. Describing their ordeal, Srushti said, "CISF personnel were very helpful and called the Indigo representative to come to the gate. We were stranded at the Mumbai airport for about nine hours. We tried enquiring multiple times about a replacement flight, but the only answer we received every hour from various officials of Indigo was ‘We are trying to arrange for a replacement flight.' At around noon, an official from Indigo came and said, ‘We do not have any flight till 8.20 tomorrow (January 17). Is it ok if we book a seat for that flight?' On hearing this, I said that my three-day workshop is starting from the 17th. If I take a flight on the 17th, I will already be a day late for the workshop. I asked the official to initiate the refund process." By the time the refund was given, and the luggage was handed over to the sisters, it was already 12.40 pm.

The stranded passengers were left without basic necessities such as water and breakfast, a clear violation of DGCA regulations. To add to the woes the Rithe sisters also claimed that there was a lack of communication from Indigo staff regarding the status of their flight arrangements, leaving them in a state of confusion and frustration.

Shravani Rithe, the younger sister, expressed her dissatisfaction, saying, "I had written to the DGCA via mail around 9 am when we were already stranded. I hope the DGCA takes stringent action against the airlines. I am also going to file a formal complaint against this. We had to miss our three-day workshop only because the airlines overbooked the flight. This is not at all acceptable."

Aviation expert and aviation rights activist Adv. Yashwant Shenoy, said, "Passengers are always losers in India. DGCA is controlled by airlines and will never come to the passenger's rescue. The commuter at maximum can file a lawsuit against the airlines in the consumer court for demanding compensation for their loss of valuable time and the trouble caused to them by the airlines. No passenger would willingly fight a decade-old battle in courts to claim a few thousand which is why airlines tend to exploit their passengers more and more." Emphasising the importance of new rules to help passengers, he added, "There are no stringent rules for inconveniences caused to the passenger by an airline. This is why the airlines always exploit the passengers. DGCA needs to come up with more stringent guidelines and make sure that the airlines follow them."

Another aviation expert, requesting anonymity, said, "In this case, it was only a workshop. What if someone had to attend a court case on the morning of January 17 instead of attending the workshop and they were slapped with a monetary fine for not attending the court proceeding? Who will bear this monetary fine for the error of an airline? It is the total responsibility of the airline to ensure passengers reach their destination. They cannot be left stranded this way."

9
No. of hours the duo was stranded at the airport

186
No. of seats on flight

188
No. of passengers boarded

Indigo claims

An Indigo official told mid-day, "The flight was overbooked resulting in the deboarding of the two passengers. A refund was processed when they refused to take a ticket to a flight scheduled the next morning stating they had to be at a workshop." When asked about the compensation the passenger was entitled to according to DGCA guidelines and if any refreshments were served during the waiting time for an alternate flight, the official said, "A compensation was not issued besides the refund. We currently have no other data from the airport due to the chaos of flights being delayed because of the weather conditions in many parts of India."

DGCA guidelines as per Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR), Section 3, Series M, Part IV suggest that "in case of a flight being overbooked leading to involuntary deboarding of passengers, the passenger is entitled to compensation of in case passenger does not opt for an alternate flight, refund of the full value of ticket and compensation equal to 400 per cent of booked one-way basic fare plus airline fuel charge, subject to a maximum of Rs 20,000."