Rules changed! Air passengers won’t have to pay flight cancellation fee

Hitherto, air travellers, who have to cancel their trip for some reason won’t have to pay a heavy cancellation charge to the flight. According to the revised norms by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) guidelines, air passengers can cancel their tickets without incurring cancellation penalty, provided they do so within 24 hours of booking the ticket.
According to the latest charter, the “zero cancellation policy” won’t be applicable if the flight tickets are booked less than 7 days before the date of scheduled departure. If the cancellation is done when the time between the booking date and the departure date is less than a week, the airline can rightly levy cancellation charges. It should be noted that the cancellation charge cannot be more than the total of fuel surcharge and base fare.

Passengers have often complained about the heavy cancellation charge of INR 5,000 or so charged by airlines even if the ticket is cancelled immediately after or a few hours after it was booked.
According to the new charter, however, the airline is supposed to intimate the passenger of the flight cancellation a minimum of two weeks before the scheduled date/time of departure, and even make preparation for an alternate flight or offer a refund to the passenger. If the airline informs the passenger less than two weeks before and up to 24 hours of the scheduled date of departure, it has to compulsorily offer a refund or arrange for an alternate flight for the convenience of the passenger.


The revised charter also states that if the passengers who were not made aware of or who missed the connecting airline, the airline is liable to offer an alternate flight or provide a full refund in line with the following norms:

• INR 5000 or one-way basic fare plus airline fuel charge, whichever is less for airline having an average time of maximum of 1 hour.
• INR 7500 or one-way basic fare and airline fuel charge, whichever is less for airline having an average time of more than 1 hour or a maximum of 2 hours.
• INR 10000 or one-way basic fare and airline fuel charge, whichever is less for airline having an average time of more than 2 hours.

In addition, fliers can ask for more compensation for baggage loss.