Air travellers in India struggle with ticket refunds, problems in flight operations: Report

With multiple technical snags and other reasons hampering flight operations, Air travellers in India struggle with ticket refunds, reports IANS.

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The Indian aviation sector has been facing backlash for multiple technical snags detected in various aircrafts in the recent past. From bird hits to long delays in flight operations have caused a lot of chaos leading to inconvenience for passengers. Refunds and flight problems comprised the majority of a total of 591 passenger complaints received by the scheduled domestic airlines during July this year.

As per aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), a total of 30.3 percent of complaints were about refunds while 28.3 percent were related to flight-related problems. Similarly, 11.5 percent of the complaints were about baggage-related issues and 6.6 percent were about customer service.

The data also revealed that refund-related complaints have increased substantially during the last three months from 18.1 percent in May to 18.9 percent in June to 30.3 percent in July.

As per officials of the civil aviation ministry, refund-related complaints had soared during the Covid period because of cancellation of flights. Thereafter, the DGCA issued a circular on this and all airlines are now compliant with this.

Multiple flights were delayed during July this year due to a large number of technical snags in aircraft and also due to bad weather. Officials said that the safety audit of all the airlines is regularly undertaken by the DGCA. The audit findings are communicated to the operators for resolution. 

The deficiencies brought out by the audits have been addressed by the concerned stakeholders and strict enforcement action has been taken by the DGCA for serious violations, particularly where passenger safety was concerned.

The DGCA has laid down regulations under Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) which require that the aircraft is maintained in accordance with the manufacturers’ guidelines and that all snags reported in the aircraft are rectified before it is released for flight.

(With inputs from IANS)