HC: Apart from refunds, how will you compensate flyers?

NEW DELHI: Delhi high court directed IndiGo on Thursday to clarify how it intended to compensate flyers affected by the mayhem of cancellations last Dec, saying issuing refunds wasn’t quite the same as doing right by those who bore the brunt of the crisis.

“Apart from refunding fares, what are the civil aviation rules for compensation? Please file an affidavit about compensation,” the bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia told the counsel for the airline after he informed that the carrier had processed refunds for cancelled flights.The counsel submitted that for flights that were “most severely impacted”, IndiGo was offering vouchers worth Rs 10,000 to each passenger.

He said a website has been set up for them to claim compensation. “You know who the flyers are; why do they need to claim compensation?” the bench responded. “Anyway, you file an affidavit to this effect in two weeks.”The court was hearing a PIL by advocates Akhil Rana and Utkarsh Sharma, seeking directions to Centre to provide support and refunds to passengers affected by cancellation of hundreds of flights by IndiGo during that period.

They argued that compensation must be in the form of money instead of vouchers.The petitioners pointed out that IndiGo had issued travel vouchers to stranded passengers with a time limit for utilisation. When the airline’s counsel said the vouchers were valid for 12 months, the judges noted the time frame appeared reasonable. They sought to know if there were options for flyers who did not use the vouchers within that period.Civil aviation ministry and DGCA informed the court that steps have been taken by authorities to prevent a recurrence of the crisis.Based on the inquiry committee’s report, IndiGo’s senior vice-president for operations was asked to step down, and a penalty of Rs 22 crore was slapped on the airline for its failure to adhere to the new flight roster norms, Centre’s counsel said.He said the airline was directed to furnish a bank guarantee of Rs 50 crore to ensure compliance with regulatory directions and long-term systemic corrections, while warnings had been issued to the chief operating officer, director, deputy head of flight operations and a resource analyst.The inquiry report was submitted to court in a sealed cover. Between Dec 3 and 5, IndiGo cancelled 2,507 flights while 1,852 were delayed, impacting over three lakh passengers across country. The inquiry found out that the airline was not adequately prepared to implement the new flight duty norms for pilots.