Biman asked to pay compensation to 12 passengers
Wednesday, 13 February 2008
FE Report
Biman Bangladesh Airlines has been asked by the Delhi Consumer Commission to pay Rs 450,000 (Over Tk. 700,000) to 12 passengers, who were wrongfully denied seats in a flight for want of re-confirmation of tickets.
Economic Times, leading Indian financial daily reported it on Sunday. Holding the air carrier guilty of deficiency in service and unfair trade practice, the Commission said it was not justified on their part to deny seats to the complainants even as a large number of seats remained unoccupied in the flight, the newspaper reported.
"If the seats were available and had not been allotted to any other passenger, the airlines had no right to refuse the passengers from boarding the plane," the Commission's President Justice J D Kapoor said recently in separate orders.
According to the complainants, they were not provided seats for their return journey from Bangkok to Delhi on April 17, 2004 on the premise that their tickets stood cancelled as they had failed to re-confirm their status 72 hours before the flight.
The Airlines cited the Warsaw Convention that accorded a right to an air carrier to cancel a passenger's ticket if a re-confirmation is not received 72 hours before the departure.
Rejecting the airline's argument, the Commission said they could not be allowed to keep a passenger on tenterhooks and loom the sword of cancellation large over his head under the garb of an unfriendly interpretation of the Convention.
"If such a cancelled seat is not allotted to any wait-listed passenger or in spite of there being large number of unoccupied seats, then such provision or convention amounts to unfair trade practice," it noted.
Biman Bangladesh Airlines has been asked by the Delhi Consumer Commission to pay Rs 450,000 (Over Tk. 700,000) to 12 passengers, who were wrongfully denied seats in a flight for want of re-confirmation of tickets.
Economic Times, leading Indian financial daily reported it on Sunday. Holding the air carrier guilty of deficiency in service and unfair trade practice, the Commission said it was not justified on their part to deny seats to the complainants even as a large number of seats remained unoccupied in the flight, the newspaper reported.
"If the seats were available and had not been allotted to any other passenger, the airlines had no right to refuse the passengers from boarding the plane," the Commission's President Justice J D Kapoor said recently in separate orders.
According to the complainants, they were not provided seats for their return journey from Bangkok to Delhi on April 17, 2004 on the premise that their tickets stood cancelled as they had failed to re-confirm their status 72 hours before the flight.
The Airlines cited the Warsaw Convention that accorded a right to an air carrier to cancel a passenger's ticket if a re-confirmation is not received 72 hours before the departure.
Rejecting the airline's argument, the Commission said they could not be allowed to keep a passenger on tenterhooks and loom the sword of cancellation large over his head under the garb of an unfriendly interpretation of the Convention.
"If such a cancelled seat is not allotted to any wait-listed passenger or in spite of there being large number of unoccupied seats, then such provision or convention amounts to unfair trade practice," it noted.