Leaving a passenger stranded at the airport without providing any accommodation to spend the night, district consumer disputes redressal forum, Chandigarh, directed Jet Airways limited (India) to pay `10,000 as compensation for unfair trade practices and deficient services.
Disposing of the plaint filed by Vikas Jain, a Sector-17 based businessman, the consumer forum has also directed the airlines to pay `5,000 as cost of litigation.
Jain had got a booking done with Jet Airways limited for travelling on July 22, 2013, from Chandigarh to Indore via Mumbai. He had to prepone the booking to June 21, 2013, and the booking was confirmed.
Jain claimed that though, the boarding pass from Delhi to Indore was handed to him at the Chandigarh airport, he could only travel from Chandigarh to Delhi, and failed to reach Indore as Jet Airways limited could not arrange a flight from Delhi to Indore for him.
Even as Jain had to wait for 11 hours before taking another flight from Delhi to Indore, his request to provide an accommodation for his stay was refused by the airlines and he spent night at the airport, leaving him inconvenienced.
Denying any deficiency in services, Jet Airways limited said the flight from Chandigarh to Delhi got delayed due to delay on the part of Air Traffic Control Office (ATC Office), Chandigarh. The airlines said, moreover, owing to an incident of VIP movement from the Chandigarh airport, there was delay in handing over the departure schedule and flight plan to the ATC Office, thereby getting approval for departure at a specific time. Since, the connecting flight was already closed and was ready to take off, it was not reopened for the interest of other passengers, the airlines claimed.
Consumer forum presided over by PL Ahuja, on March 10, held, "Non production of the relevant record by the airlines raises an adverse inference against it. The complainant was also not provided any accommodation for spending the night, thus, having to suffer a lot on the account of non-providing of connecting flight, which clearly amounts to unfair trade practice on the part of the airlines, who remained deficient in providing proper service."
{{/usCountry}}Consumer forum presided over by PL Ahuja, on March 10, held, "Non production of the relevant record by the airlines raises an adverse inference against it. The complainant was also not provided any accommodation for spending the night, thus, having to suffer a lot on the account of non-providing of connecting flight, which clearly amounts to unfair trade practice on the part of the airlines, who remained deficient in providing proper service."
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