CHENNAI: Four years after British Airways cancelled a flight due to a technical snag, a consumer forum directed the airline to provide a compensation of Rs 94,000 to Anderson Chellakumar of Anna Nagar.
Chellakumar submitted at the forum that he had booked ticket to attend the “International Familiarization week” to to be held in Glasgow from March 2-6, 2015. He was supposed to travel on March 1.
However, after being issued boarding pass, the flight got cancelled due to a technical snag. Due to this, Chellakumar missed the conference and his other travel plans also got cancelled.
Despite the British Airways offering Rs 600 as compensation and a travel ticket in the Qatar Airways on March 3, Anderson refused the offer and filed a complaint seeking compensation of Rs 5 lakh at the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Chennai ( South).
Denying the allegations, the counsel for British Airlines submitted that an alternative arrangement after two days and a compensation of Rs 600 was offered to Anderson, but he declined it.
However, the forum presided by M Mony consisting of member R Baskarkumaravel observed the guidelines of Directorate General of Civil Aviation in compensating a passenger stating that “Airlines either refund the ticket or make reasonable attempt to make alternate travel arrangements as per the choice of the passengers.”
The forum also said that there was no real effort by British Airlines to pay Rs 600 as per the guidelines and asked them to pay Rs 93,900.