Apart from refund, passengers will get a travel voucher of Rs 10,000 as compensation.
New Delhi. Due to cancellation of Indigo flights, passengers are facing a lot of problems. Passengers faced maximum problems in the first week of December, because hundreds of Indigo flights were canceled during this period. Due to which the passengers also suffered huge financial loss. After which DGCA has taken strict action against the airline. Now Indigo has announced relief to passengers due to cancellation of a large number of flights on 3, 4 and 5 December. The company has said that the affected passengers will be given compensation ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 as per government rules.
Along with this, the airline has also announced the issuance of additional travel vouchers of up to Rs 10,000 for the most affected passengers. This decision is being considered as a significant relief for those passengers whose travel plans suddenly changed and who faced huge inconvenience. The special thing about this travel voucher is that it can be used anytime for the next 12 months. Passengers can use these vouchers for any IndiGo domestic flight or international route in India. Indigo said that a travel voucher of Rs 10,000 will be given to those passengers whose journeys had to be changed more than once, that is, whose flights were rescheduled repeatedly, or who had to wait for a long time at the airport. Passengers have been advised to check the messages sent to their registered email and mobile numbers to facilitate the process of claiming compensation and vouchers.
Indigo apologized to passengers
According to the company, the compensation amount will be given under the guidelines prescribed by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. Passengers whose flights were canceled due to the airline are entitled to this compensation as per the rules. Indigo clarified that the compensation amount will be given on the basis of flight distance, ticket class and inconvenience caused to the passenger. Its objective is to reduce the financial loss and unnecessary hassle caused to the passengers. Indigo issued a statement saying that the company regrets the inconvenience caused to the passengers due to canceled flights and is ensuring that such situations do not happen again in future.
15 minutes delay in flight will be investigated
Following the problems in IndiGo’s flight operations, the entire structure for monitoring technical glitches has been changed with immediate effect. Frequent delays, cancellations of flights and recent security incidents have forced DGCA to radically tighten the defect reporting system. According to the new 12-page order, if any scheduled flight is delayed by 15 minutes or more due to technical reasons, its investigation will be mandatory. The company will have to explain why there was a delay? How was it fixed? What measures were taken to prevent it from happening again? These are provisions which were not applicable earlier. The company will have to immediately inform DGCA over phone about any ‘major defect’. A detailed report will have to be sent within 72 hours. If the defect is repeated three times, it will be considered as ‘Repetitive Defect’ and a separate special investigation will be started on it. DGCA took this strict action because till now the defect reporting system was weak. Till now there was no system like 15 minutes delay check and there was no definition of repeat defect.
Rules became strict after Indigo crisis came to light
The new provisions from DGCA have come after the Indigo crisis came to light. In fact, more than 5000 flights were canceled in the last 8 days due to crew members in Indigo. Indigo Chairman Vikram Singh Mehta appeared before the people on Wednesday, 9 days after the crisis. He issued a video message and apologized to the passengers. He said that we will investigate every aspect. There will also be external technical experts, who will find out the real reason behind the problem.
There will also be on-site inspection of IndiGo’s operations at 11 airports.
DGCA said that in 2-3 days, senior officials will conduct on-site inspection at 11 domestic airports. Officials will investigate different aspects of IndiGo’s operations. These 11 airports include Nagpur, Jaipur, Bhopal, Surat, Tirupati, Vijayawada, Shirdi, Cochin, Lucknow, Amritsar and Dehradun. These officers will report to the Director of Operations, Flight Safety Department in the Directorate General of Civil Aviation in New Delhi within 24 hours of the visit.