Airline to shell out Rs. 1.25 lakh for delay in delivering luggage

Lufthansa German Airlines will have to shell out Rs. 1.25 lakh for three days’ delay in delivering two of three luggage bags to Nishith Mishra, the then director of Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation during a domestic air travel in Austria in July 2010.

Lufthansa German Airlines will have to shell out Rs. 1.25 lakh for three days’ delay in delivering two of three luggage bags to Nishith Mishra, the then director of Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation during a domestic air travel in Austria in July 2010.

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The Mumbai suburban district consumer forum has directed the airline to pay him Rs. 1 lakh as reimbursement of expenses incurred for purchasing essential items and Rs. 25,000 towards compensation for mental agony.

In July 2010, Mishra had gone to Braz, Austria, with his wife on an official tour.

The couple took an Air India flight up to Frankfurt from where they took a domestic flight of Lufthansa.

On reaching Braz, the couple found to its shock that two of their three luggage bags had not reached the destination.

Apart from being forced to purchase essential items in Austria, Mishra alleged that he could not attend the meetings scheduled in Braz, since all the relevant documents were held up in the two missing bags.

In December 2010, the couple approached the consumer forum seeking a compensation of Rs. 2.45 lakh, after the airline rejected their pleas seeking compensation for the inconvenience.

The airline contested the complaint saying they could not be held responsible as the passengers had failed to declare contents of the bags at the time of boarding their flight. It also contended that a mere delay of three days in delivering luggage could not cause any inconvenience.

The forum disregarded the defence stating the delay in delivering the bags had interfered with the very purpose of the trip, as Mishra could not participate in the official meeting for lack of essential documents.

“The complainants must have suffered mental agony and inconvenience,” the forum said.

It, however, limited the extent of aggregate compensation to Rs. 1.25 lakh considering clauses in Montreal Convention on compensating air passengers for loss or misplacement of luggage. The forum has given the airline two months’ time to pay the amount of compensation to the couple.