Airline causes flight delay, then slaps cancellation fee on passenger who missed connecting flight

An airline on Tuesday slapped massive cancellation charges on passengers for missing their connecting flights due to a delay caused by the airline itself. [caption id=“attachment_2275002” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] Low-cost airline IndiGo slapped these charges on Mumbai-based Golaka C Nath and his family when they missed their connecting flight to Srinagar via Delhi due to a delay of a Mumbai-Delhi flight which they were also supposed to take, according to The Times of India. When Nath requested the airline to reschedule the Srinagar flight, the airline demanded a rescheduling fee from him. “Then I requested (them) to cancel the Mumbai-Delhi leg flight since it was delayed from their side. The airlines representative said that they will charge cancellation fee,” TOI quoted him as saying. However, as a good-will gesture, IndiGo offered to refund the entire sum to him later. This incident comes just days after Air India suspended 17 of its cabin crew members, including some senior air hostesses, pending enquiry, apparently for “delaying” several of the national carrier’s international flights citing “inadequate” rest period. But cabin crew sources claimed that these air hostesses were only “adhering” to regulations. According to aviation regulator DGCA’s rest period norms, “No air carrier may schedule a cabin crew to perform duty in an aeroplane for more than 11 hrs of flight time during any 24 consecutive hours without a rest period. “Before a cabin crew is detailed for an international flight, his or her rest period since the last flight shall not be less than 22 hours. The rest of 22 hours will be either at home base or at another station from where the international flight shall originate.” The flights which were allegedly delayed because of these 17 air hostesses include services to Delhi from London, Milan and Rome as well as from Jeddah to Calicut and Kochi, sources said. (With inputs from PTI)