Kingfisher told to compensate a Bangalore flier

 Kingfisher Airlines has been asked to compensate a Bangalore passenger for having failed to inform him in time about the cancellation of a Chennai-Port Blair flight in February this year.

A consumer court recently directed the airlines to pay Rs 13,000 to Sqn Ldr (retd) Devendra Goyal, resident of Vidyaranyapura, for causing him mental agony by not disclosing the status of the flight in spite of his efforts to make enquiries with the staff.

Goyal was forced to cancel his ticket two days before the date of journey after attempts to contact the airline authorities failed.

The complainant had booked tickets with Kingfisher Airlines but later had doubts over the flight operating on schedule. "When he wanted to verify, it was the airline's duty to reply and confirm that his flight was indeed on schedule. But the airline did not respond at all to the complainant's efforts to verify the real position, and he was kept in the dark," the judges observed in their August 14 order.

"The complainant had already made arrangements for hotel reservation and other things at Port Blair, and the payments made were not refundable," the judges said. The complainant was put to mental agony because there was no certainty about his trip, they added.

"If the flights were on schedule, the airline could have, at least, confirmed the same... The airline failed to discharge its duty, and in our opinion, it amounted to deficiency in service," said president T Rajashekharaiah and member H Shivalingappa of the 3rd Additional District Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum.

The airline was told to pay Rs 10,000 as compensation for causing mental agony and Rs 3,000 as costs to Goyal.

NO COMPENSATION AS YET

Kingfisher Airlines had been asked to pay compensation within 30 days. It hasn't happened as yet. Nor have I received any intimation about the order being challenged.

Sqn Ldr (retd) Devendra Goyal

WHAT'S THE CASE

Sqn Ldr (retd) Devendra Goyal purchased a ticket for a Kingfisher Airlines flight from Chennai to Port Blair on February 26, 2012. On hearing about en masse cancellation of Kingfisher flights, Goyal made repeated calls to the airline's helpline to ascertain the correctness of the news. But he got no reply.

In his complaint, Goyal alleged that he'd planned the holiday in advance and the money paid for hotel reservation wasn't refundable. Hence, he had no alternative but to buy tickets from other airlines. On February 26, the date of the journey, Goyal was informed about the flight cancellation.



Shekhar Gupta
CEO
Capt. Shekhar Gupta [ Pilot, DIAM, M.Ae.S.I., MAOPA [USA] ]
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