Visakhapatnam: The Visakhapatnam district consumer disputes redressal forum has ordered private airline Air Costa to pay Rs 75,000 as compensation to three passengers (Rs 25,000 to each) for the inconvenience caused to them (three in each family) because of a flight cancellation without prior intimation to the passengers. The forum also directed the airline to pay Rs 34,000 to the family towards the cost of flight tickets besides a litigation cost of Rs 2,500.
A. Kameswara Rao and A.V.V.S. Rama Rao, the advocates who handled the case, mentioned that their clients Venda Niresh, Hanumanthu Satish and Venda Sharmila, bought Air Costa tickets on the Internet for the Vizag-Hyderabad flight on March 10, 2016 to fly to Hyderabad on March 12, 2016. Niresh is a resident of Vizag city and he is preparing for the Civil Services in Hyderabad while Satish and Sharmila are natives of Vizag and are residing in the US.
The trio went to Vizag Airport on March 12, 2016 to travel to Hyderabad from where Satish and Sharmila were to take a flight to Dubai and then another flight to Boston.
At that time, there was an announcement by the Airport Authority that there was a delay in the arrival of the Air Costa flight. After waiting for some hours, it was confirmed that the flight in which the trio were to travel was cancelled.
As there was no alternative, the complainants immediately purchased three tickets on Spice Jet from Vizag to Hyderabad by spending Rs 13,494, Rs 9,000 and Rs 8,016 respectively, besides paying Rs 9,000 towards luggage charges, which totaled Rs 39,510.
The complainants have stated that it was the “bounden duty” of the management of Air Costa to inform the passengers in case of any cancellation of its flights in advance, but it failed to do so and caused severe “mental agony and tension” as the complainants had to leave for the USA on the connecting flight from Hyderabad.
Moreover, their baggage had to be checked through the International Flight Agency at Hyderabad and from Hyderabad they had to fly to Dubai and then to Boston on another flight.
The sudden cancellation affected all their plans. The Air Costa management paid back Rs 9,297 towards cancellation charges. But the complainants had additionally spent Rs 39,510 for the Spice Jet flight. The trio filed a petition in the consumer forum in Vizag city.
However, the Airline has filed a counter-petition stating that the airline does not have an obligation to pay compensation in cases where the cancellation and delays had been caused by an event like forces of nature.
The forum, led by president C.V. Surya Bhaskaram and member K.V.R. Maheswari, called the cancellation a deficiency of service by the airline and also found that the passengers had to spend a huge amount by switching to Spice Jet, (which is the last flight to catch the connected flight).
This clearly showed a gross deficiency in service on the part of Air Costa. The forum ordered the airline to pay Rs 30,213 with interest at 9 per cent per annum from March 12, 2016 to the complainants besides Rs 75,000 compensation.
