Now passengers facing delay of flights, have some reasons to relax. According to the passengers right charter released, by the Ministry of Civil Aviation has clarified what all the passengers are entitled to in case of flight delays or cancellations.

    As for delay of flights, by two to six hours, the airline company has to provide free meals to the passengers. But this applies only to those passengers who will be waiting at the airport.

If the delay is for more than six hours, passengers have the option of an alternate flight or full refund. Due to delay in any flight for more than six hours  which scheduled between 8 p.m -3.a.m, the airline has to offer hotel accommodation to the passengers and inform about the delay one day in advance.

For the cancellation of flight or tickets passengers now can claim a liable compensation. In case of flight delay and the airline fails to inform the passengers or a passenger has missed the connecting flight due to delay in previous flight, will amount to the cost of a one-way basic fare plus fuel charges or Rs 5,000. For flights up to one hour long would compensate Rs 10,000 for flights over two hours long.

 Refunding will be easier. Tickets can be cancelled without any cancellation charges based on the fact that the tickets are cancelled within a day of the booking. But the cancellation charges won’t apply if the tickets are booked for less than seven days before the scheduled departure time of the flight. If it is a foreign airlines, the right to refund will be subject to its internal policies.

Prior to the new charter, correction in the name of passengers were considered as cancellation and passengers had to pay additional charges and book a new ticket. But the new charter states that passengers can make correction in their name within 24 hours of booking and without any additional charges.

 Provision for overbooked flights are that, if the passenger is not able to board a flight due to over booking, the airline has to arrange for an alternate flight within one hour of the booking. If the alternate flight is not available then the passenger has to be compensated up to 400 percent of the booking price (one way) subject to certain conditions.

However for loss of baggage or damage to baggage the airline has to pay 75 percent more than the previous compensation.The airline has to pay a compensation of up to Rs 350 per kg or up to Rs 20,000.
. Physical injury or loss of life on board due to fault of the airlines, will make the airlines liable to pay 20 lakhs as compensation.