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Oct  2008

Deccan Airlines told to pay compensation for flight cancellation

     New Delhi: Deccan Aviation Limited has been directed by the State Consumer Commission to pay a passenger Rs 30,000 as compensation for putting him to inconvenience by abruptly cancelling its Kullu-Delhi flight for four days at a stretch. The Commission said that the airlines-service provider was responsible to keep the flights in perfect order and not to put the passengers in unnecessary inconvenience and mental stress by keeping them waiting or sending them back as they might be having some urgent business engagements or assignments. The commission president, Justice J D Kapoor, while rejecting the airlines' plea that the cancellation of flight was due to bad weather, said, "All such acts amount to deficiency in service and render the service provider liable to compensate the consumer adequately and reasonably in terms of the observations of the Supreme Court." Last year in March, Anjani Malik, a resident of Haryana was unable to catch a flight from Kullu to Delhi and was told to wait for the next day, an exercise which lasted for four days at a stretch. Following which he decided to return to the Capital at his own costs and then approached the consumer forum to get his grievance redressed against the airlines.
-Oct 21, 2008