With domestic air travellers exceeding pre-Covid levels month after month and recording new highs, a spate of complaints from passengers has forced the government to discuss setting up of an ombudsman or an authority to address grievances.
The Department of Consumer Affairs on Wednesday held a meeting with online travel aggregators, officials of the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation after it received nearly 10,000 complaints made through the National Consumer’s Helpline over the past 7-8 months over issues such as delays in refunds from airlines, denied boarding and unavailability of free seats at the time of booking a ticket and web check-in.
“The establishment of an Ombudsman for time-bound resolution of consumer grievances was also deliberated. The Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Department of Consumer Affairs can jointly work on the modalities involved in establishing the same,” said a press statement issued by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs.
Officials also discussed ways to integrate the National Consumer Helpline of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and the AirSewa portal of the Ministry of Civil Aviation and ways to create more awareness about Passenger Charter which details the rights of passengers during flight cancellations, diversion, denial of boarding or if a baggage is lost or mishandled.
A senior official of the Ministry of Civil Aviation said, “We are open to the idea of an Ombudsman.” He added that the complaints received through the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System, an online portal administered by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, and AirSewa Portal were being taken up by the Ministry for resolution with the airlines concerned.
Former officials of the Ministry also say that an Ombudsman for the aviation sector is among the major reforms needed to improve air travel and that such a proposal was mooted as early as 2013. India is the third biggest domestic aviation market in the world, after the US and China. There were 4.07 lakh domestic air travellers per day on an average in October and 1.25 crore passengers in the calendar year 2022.
There are regulators for aviation safety (Directorate General of Civil Aviation), aviation security (Bureau of Civil Aviation Security), airport tariff (Airport Economic Regulatory Authority) and an Aircraft Accidents Investigation Bureau, but no authority for grievances from air travellers.
