Flight cancellation: Consumer panel asks airline to pay compensation to passenger

The Ernakulam District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has ordered an airline to pay a compensation of ₹20,000 to a passenger, who was not able to travel to Tirupati following the cancellation of a connecting flight from Bengaluru.

The Commission, comprising president D.B. Binu and members V. Ramachandran and T.N. Sreevidhia, issued an order dated February 28, 2025 directing Indigo Airlines to pay ₹20,000 as compensation to Aravinda Raja of Padivattom, who had filed a complaint before the Commission on August 14, 2018. The airline has to pay ₹6,000 as the cost of proceedings to the complainant, it said.

The complainant had booked four return tickets from Kochi to Tirupati through a travel company online and had paid the flight charges. He had also booked the tickets for stay and darshan at Tirupati.

The airline representatives had reportedly informed him on the previous day of his journey that his connecting flight from Bengaluru to Tirupati had been preponed. The family was not able to board the connecting flight in view of the change in the schedule. He alleged that the administrative and technical mismanagement of the airline had forced him to cancel the trip. The airline had later cancelled the connecting flight from Bengaluru to Tirupati, according to the order.

The counsel for the airline informed the Commission that the complainant was aware that enough time gap had to be maintained between two connecting flights. The airline claimed that the flight had to be preponed on account of operational reasons, which was beyond its control. They had also refunded the entire ticket cost to the complainant.

The Commission’s order stated that the airline was not able to produce any evidence to prove that the flight was cancelled due to operational reasons. The sudden change in the timings and the cancellation of the flight caused severe mental agony, strain and other difficulties to the complainant and the airline was duty-bound to compensate him for the deficiency in service, it said.