Get more for lost baggage, flight delays : Airlines to pay higher compensation to fliers

Compensation to fliers on Indian airlines for loss of life or baggage and cargo is set to be revised, as the government has cleared amendments to a law governing such liability. The Union Cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposed amendment that will give passengers or their kin higher compensation from airlines for “damage sustained in case of death or bodily injury for each person, flight delays, destruction, loss, damage or delay of flight baggage, and destruction, loss or delay in relation to carriage of air cargo”. [caption id=“attachment_1623997” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  . AFP.[/caption] As per the proposal cleared by the Cabinet, compensation for passengers sustaining damage due to death or on account of bodily injury will increase to SDR (Special Drawing Rights  is an international reserve asset created by the IMF to supplement member countries’ official reserves. Its value is based on a absket of four international currencies, and SDRs can be exchanged for freely usuable currencies.) 1,13,100 from SDR 1,00,000; compensation for delay in carriage of each passenger will increase to SDR 4,694 from SDR 4,150; compensation for destruction, loss, damage or delay with respect of baggage for each passenger will increase to SDR 1,131 from SDR 1,000 and compensation for destruction, loss or delay in relation to the carriage of cargo will increase to SDR 19 from SDR 17. So if a person dies or suffers bodily injury in an air crash or some other aviation-related accident, the compensation payable to the family is now Rs 90 lakh, up from Rs 75 lakh earlier and in case of inordinate flight delays, the compensation could be as high as Rs 3.5 lakh, up from Rs 3 lakh earlier. The maximum compensation for lost baggage has been upped to Rs 84,000 from Rs 74,000 earlier, a Times of India report said. The government is now expected to move the amendment in Parliament soon, as it will have to amend the Carriage By Air Act, 1972, in line with the new provisions under the Montreal Convention, after the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) decided on the margin of the compensation hike.