By: Tabassum Barnagarwala & Johanna Deeksha Published in: *Scroll* Date: December 14, 2025 Source: https://scroll.in/article/1089298/flyers-can-seek-damages-from-indigo-but-most-will-skip-that-route
On December 3, Siddhartha Das, a faculty member at IIT Hyderabad, was flying from Tirupati to Chandigarh via Hyderabad on an IndiGo aircraft. But a shortage of crew and pilots led to delays across the airline’s operations. By the time the flight from Tirupati reached Hyderabad, his connecting flight had departed. The airlines booked him on an alternate flight but that too kept getting delayed. The airlines finally cancelled the flight, but not after he had spent 12 hours at the airport. “It was absolutely horrible, passengers were crying and panicking,” he said. His ordeal did not end after the cancellation. The airlines were unable to trace his bags at the Hyderabad airport. “I tried calling but the staff said they have 2,000 bags with them and it will take them time to find my bag,” he said. He got his baggage after 10 days. >From December 3 onwards, thousands of passengers like Das suffered inordinate delays, had trips cancelled or entirely missed out on their travel plans because the operations of the country's largest carrier, IndiGo airlines, were derailed by its inability to meet stricter flight duty norms. But as the airline resumes routine operations, the question for Das and other passengers remains: How do they go about seeking refunds? And will they be compensated for their ordeal? Aviation experts and lawyers *Scroll* spoke to said they can seek damages in consumer courts, though most passengers either seem reluctant or are unaware about how to take the legal route. *What passengers are entitled to vs what they got* On December 5, Dr Vasundhara Rangaswamy drove from Baroda to the Ahmedabad airport. Her IndiGo flight to Chennai had already been delayed by a day and converted from a non-stop one to a layover. But that was the least of her inconveniences. At the airport, her newly assigned flight kept getting delayed, hour by hour. Eventually she waited at the airport for over 20 hours, spending an entire night wide awake before she decided to cancel the flight the next evening. When she finally returned home, the 53-year-old fell sick. “I had not slept the entire night because they kept postponing by an hour each time,” she said. “By the time I got home, it was 24 hours since I had left. So it took a toll on me.” According to rules laid down by the Director General of Civil Aviation, the national regulatory body for airlines, Rangaswamy was entitled to more assistance than she got. If a passenger has checked in on time and the flight is delayed for two to four or more hours, they must be provided free meals. Rangaswamy told *Scroll*: “The airlines should have provided at least food and water and maybe even some warm clothing. I learnt later that the staff was providing food outside the airport,” she said. “But how could I have come out, taken the food and gone back inside?” She claimed that unless passengers asked, they were not provided with the food packets. In such scenarios, passengers are entitled to “limited rights”, saidProfessor Sandeepa Bhat, director at the Kolkata-based Centre for Aviation and Space Laws. “These rights include free meals, accommodation, and a limited amount of compensation in appropriate cases.” Thousands of passengers who were made to wait for their flight for over two hours can seek compensation through consumer commissions if they were not provided meals, said Bhat. “Not providing a hotel stay in appropriate cases can also be challenged.” *Compensation rules* In case the airline cancels the flight within 24 hours of the scheduled departure, as it did in Rangaswamy’s case, the DGCA rules say it must either provide an alternate flight or provide compensation in addition to the full refund of the air ticket. For flights with a duration of one hour, a compensation of Rs 5,000 must be provided, for a flight between one to two hours, a compensation of Rs 7,500 and for longer flights, a compensation of Rs 10,000. Alternatively, the airline can also provide one-way basic fare plus fuel charge cost to passengers. But IndiGo’s refund and cancellation policy does not exactly follow these norms. The airline’s policy says it has a right to cancel flight “without incurring any liability in damages” to the passenger. While the DGCA allows an airline to cancel a flight without being liable to pay any compensation in case of a terror attack, weather conditions, or a natural calamity, the IndiGo policy also includes shortage of critical manpower as an extraordinary circumstance in which passengers are not entitled to seek damages. However, Bhat, the professor, said the airline’s policy was overruled by the national rules. “The passengers can approach the appropriate consumer commissions for remedy,” Bhat said. Several passengers told *Scroll* on December 10 that the airline was not entertaining most compensation requests. On December 12, however, IndiGo announced a compensation of Rs 10,000, in the form of travel vouchers, to “severely affected” passengers who were stranded at airports between December 3 and 5. The vouchers will be valid for 12 months. *Scroll* contacted IndiGo to understand the process of identifying “severely affected” passengers for Rs 10,000 travel vouchers. The airlines spokesperson said it will compensate people who were stranded for several hours at the airport due to the flight disruptions. In addition, it said it would offer an additional compensation of Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 to passengers whose flights were cancelled within 24 hours of departure. According to Bhat, passengers can definitely seek damages if they have suffered financial losses because of missing the flight. “When the delay or cancellation of the flight results in material damage to passengers, which may be in the form of loss of earnings, increased medical costs, loss of contract, or any other economic loss, in those circumstances, the Carriage by Air Act is applicable, and the carrier is liable to pay full compensation by adhering to the principle of restitution,” he said. The amount offered by the airlines and mentioned by the DCGA rules are “basic” provisions, R Harikrishnan, an advocate at the Kerala High Court, told *Scroll*. “If passengers encountered a special situation, mental loss and agony, they can always sue the airline at a consumer court,” he said. “They can approach the consumer court for compensation if they felt there was a ‘deficiency in services’ or that they experienced ‘unfair trade practice’, which both fall under the Consumer Protection Act.” Passengers can file a complaint online but would need to have a lawyer to appear at the forum for hearings, Harikrishnan said. Consumer courts have to settle cases within six months, though cases often drag on for many years. “If a large number of cases against IndiGo come to the court at the same time, maybe some kind of uniform action will be taken,” he said. *Refunds stuck* According to the DGCA rules, in case of delays of more than two hours or if the flight takes off an hour or more earlier, passengers are entitled to a full refund or they should be re-booked onto an alternative IndiGo flight at no additional cost. If a passenger is in transit and has connecting flights which have been delayed or cancelled, they are entitled to a partial refund for the portion of the flight not completed or they can return to the city they began their journey in and demand a refund. They can also demand credit for future travel. But in multiple cases, passengers had no option to return to their point of origin or to take alternative IndiGo flights. In such cases, IndiGo must refund them fully. But the airline is yet to begin paying back in such cases. For instance, Das, who missed his connecting flight from Hyderabad to Chandigarh, told *Scroll*: “The staff at the airport insisted that I can only seek a refund from customer care but no one is responding. Even my emails are not getting any responses,” he said. *Scroll* found many more passengers unable to seek refunds. They have been waiting for their flight money to be credited to their account. Many complained how difficult it was to contact the airline's customer care. According to IndiGo, it has been attending to two lakh queries every day through its various communication channels, including customer helpline number and social media. *Scroll* found that the wait time on the helpline ranged between 20 to 30 minutes since December 3. Till December 8, refunds of Rs 827 crore have been disbursed for flights cancelled till December 15. Over 9,500 passengers were provided hotel accommodation and 10,000 cabs and buses were arranged for them, the airlines spokesperson said. In addition, till December 8, 4,500 bags were delivered to passengers. But the backlog is huge. Major airports continue to have suitcases spread across the baggage claim section and passengers are left to find their luggage themselves. Rangaswamy said when she went to collect her bags at the Ahmedabad airport, she found “hundreds and hundreds of bags”. “I asked the staff how I’m supposed to find my bag,” she said. “I realised that the airline had no way to track my baggage, there was no system in place.” *‘It’s a hoax’* Their experience with IndiGo has left Das and Rangaswamy sceptical and frustrated. On December 14, when Rangaswamy followed up with the airlines’ customer care regarding her refund, she was shocked to find that she had been entered into the system as a “no show”, making her ineligible for a refund. The airlines have refunded Rs 944 which was a tax she had paid, denying her the cost of the flight which was Rs 6,443. “I told them that they were the ones who cancelled my flight and it was extremely unfair that they were now claiming I did not show up, when I had to wait so many hours,” she said. “I thought I would request them for food and taxi expenditure refund, but now it looks like I will be denied even the flight refund.” Das, too, is uncertain about how to proceed. “I have no idea how to apply for compensation, I feel it’s a hoax,” said Das. “The airlines have all our contact details. If they really intend on giving us compensation, they should email us the process so we can know how to do it.” He said he was wary of approaching the consumer court all by himself but if a group of other passengers joined him, he would consider the option. ADVERTISEMENT
