Now this for flights from Delhi. I guess you should file compaint for compensation from AIR India
_________________________________________
Air travellers to get Rs 10,000 for flight delays

Press Trust of India
Posted online: Sunday, December 24, 2006 at 1113 hours IST
Updated: Sunday, December 24, 2006 at 1134 hours IST

New Delhi, December 24: In a relief to passengers, who are left stranded at airports owing to flight cancellation and delays due to technical snags, State Consumer Commission has held that airlines operating from Delhi will have to pay a compensation of Rs 10,000 each to domestic travellers if the delay exceeded two hours.

"Every airline operating from Delhi shall pay a minimum compensation of Rs 10,000 to every domestic passenger in case there is delay in departure and arrival of two hours or more than the schedule time," Justice J D Kapoor, President of the Commission, said in a common order.

The Commission also ordered that all the affected passengers of international flights would be paid Rs 20,000 each as compensation.

Late running, cancellation of flights, offloading of consumers with confirmed status of ticket and traffic congestion in the air and on the ground have become the order of the day, said Justice Kapoor adding "they cause enormous mental agony, harassment and physical discomfort which are not assessable in terms of money".


The Commission, however, observed that the delays caused due to inclement weather, tyre bursts, which are beyond control of the service providers, did not entitle passengers to get compensation.

The order came on an appeal filed by Alliance Air Limited (AAL) against the verdict of a District Consumer Forum which had asked it to pay Rs 6,000 as compensation to one Daljit Singh Nirman who could not attend the meeting at Jammu as his flight got delayed by six hours at Delhi airport.

As per Nirman, a resident of Janak Puri here, his flight to Jammu on September 26, 1999 was scheduled to leave Delhi at 1010 hrs.

On his arrival at the airport, he was informed that the flight would leave two hours after the schedule time whereas it finally took off after a wait of about six hours.

Later, he approached the forum which allowed his complaint.

Against this, AAL appealed to the Commission which not only dismissed its appeal but issued a general order binding all airlines operating from Delhi to compensate their passengers for flight delays.
_______________________________________

There is more compensation in pipeline

More pay for lost baggage
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Air benefits
New Delhi, Jan. 18: Passengers flying into or out of India can soon hope to get higher and quicker compensation for death, injury, loss of baggage or delays.

The Indians among them will also be able to file their claim from India even if the journey was undertaken and the ticket bought outside the country — as long as the carrier has a presence in India.

A bill, likely to be tabled in the upcoming budget session, provides these benefits by amending the Carriage by the Air Act, 1972. It would bring India under the Montreal Convention 1999, a global treaty on international carriage of passengers, baggage and cargo.

“Non-accession to the convention by India may give rise to… serious discrimination between passengers of the same flight with regard to compensation,” Union minister Priya Ranjan Das Munshi said.

“For instance, (if India does not accede to the Montreal pact) passengers whose journey originated in the US or Britain would be entitled to much higher compensation compared with those whose journey originated in India.”

Not only will airlines be now forced to pay higher compensation to international passengers to and from India to avoid lengthy litigation, such passengers will also have the “fifth jurisdiction” option.

Before the Montreal Convention, passengers or their legal heirs had four choices of country for filing claims: the place where the ticket was issued, the airline’s principal place of business, the passenger’s destination and the carrier’s place of domicile. The Montreal Convention adds a fifth choice: the passenger’s place of domicile, provided the airline has a presence there.

The earlier options came under an international legal regime, the Warsaw System, which governs the liability of airlines for injury or death of their passengers and destruction, damage or loss to baggage and cargo. It also covers losses caused by flight delay or delay in delivering baggage or cargo.

In 1994, the International Civil Aviation Organisation had begun an initiative for a socio-economic study of compensation levels, following which the Montreal Convention was adopted in 1999, unifying all aviation rules.