Air India Fined ₹10 Lakh For Denying Boarding to Passengers With Valid Tickets

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Govt of India fined Air India ₹10 lakh for denying boarding to passengers who had valid tickets and thereafter not providing mandatory compensation to them.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said in a statement;

“After that, a series of checks were carried out by DGCA and during our surveillance at Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Delhi, there were specific instances, in the case of Air India – where the regulation (regarding compensation to passengers) is not being followed and therefore, a show-cause notice was issued to the airline and also a personal hearing was afforded.”

This comes after the DGCA recently imposed a series of penalties;

• Vistara was fined ₹10 lakh by the regulator in early June for violating takeoff and landing permission since it was granted to first officers without any training.
• Prior to this incident, IndiGo was fined ₹5 lakh for denying boarding to a specially-abled child.
• In addition, SpiceJet said that its 90 prohibited pilots would be re-trained after the DGCA fined the airline ₹10 lakh.

According to the DGCA, Air India may not have a policy in place and does not compensate passengers.

“To say the least, it is a matter of serious concern and unacceptable. In the specific cases detailed in the show cause notice, after going through AI submissions, as part of enforcement action, the competent authority has levied a penalty of ₹ 10 lakh,” DGCA stated.

“In addition, the Airline has been advised to immediately put the systems in place to resolve the issue – failing which further action shall be taken by DGCA,” it added.