CHENNAI: Disallowing a Chennai resident from boarding a flight from Moscow to Dubai because his passport had only a single name has proved costly for Gulf Air as a city consumer forum on Wednesday directed the airlines to pay him Rs 1.1 lakh for deficiency in service.
The case pertains to a complaint filed by ex-MLA and advocate Nizamudeen, a resident of Vepery, who was scheduled to travel from Moscow to Dubai on Gulf Air on February 9, 2023 for an urgent meeting the next day.
At the Moscow airport, the airline’s officials stopped him from boarding the flight. Citing the Ground Operations Attention notice issued by UAE government to all airlines, they said his passport had only a single name and that the travel document was supposed to have two words.
Nizamudeen alleged that he was made to wait for a long time and not given clear answers. Gulf Air staff blamed it on a mistake by the booking agent. Nizamudeen also asked why the airlines did not inform him when he had booked the tickets two weeks prior to his travel schedule.
Ironically, the complainant booked a ticket on Air Arabia flight on the same day after the Gulf Air fiasco, and reached UAE. Citing deficiency in service, he approached the Chennai (North) District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission. The case was taken up by the panel’s president D Gopinath and members Kavitha Kannan and V Ramamurthy.
Analysing evidence, the panel said the UAE government’s notice had mentioned that passengers with only a single name in their passport can be accepted for travel provided their father’s name or family name is mentioned in another page of the passport. Noting that this act of Gulf Air in a “reckless and negligent” manner had caused the passenger monetary loss, the panel ordered airlines to pay the ticket price with 9% interest per annum, Rs 1 lakh towards compensation for service deficiency, and Rs 10,000 for litigation costs.
