Alliance Air settled with passengers by paying more than Rs 16 lakh to 33 passengers after Hyderabad consumer commission put a stop to execution proceedings

Alliance Air has paid more than Rs 16 lakh to 33 passengers after Hyderabad consumer commission issued non-bailable warrants against them for cancelling their flights. This comes more than two years after Alliance air cancelled their Hyderabad to Mysore flight.

On 14th October the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission-II Hyderabad bench of President Vakkanti Narasimha Rao and Members P V T R Jawahar Babu and Suma Vala terminated the execution proceedings after the decree was recorded as satisfied.

They also recalled the NBWs against the airline.

On 2nd June 2022 a family consisting of 33 people had reached Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International airport to take a flight to Mysuru. They were informed through an sms message about less than 3 hours of departure that the flight had been cancelled.

No help or refreshments were offered to them. Only a few members of the family were allowed to move to alternate flights which the family could not avail themselves.

Alliance air subsequently informed them via written message that they may go ahead and cancel their journey. The cancellation caused them to lose out on Rs 2.70 lakh of non refundable hotels booked in Ooty and Mudumalai as well as cab that were booked by them.

Through it's order dated 11th July 2024 the Commission found Alliance air to be grossly deficient in service and failure to follow DGCA guidelines when it came to passenger care.

They were ordered to pay Rs 2.70 lakh towards damages incurred by them as well as compensation aggregating to Rs 9.90 lakh which works out to be Rs 30000 per passenger. A sum of Rs 20000 was also ordered to be paid towards costs of the litigation within 45 days. Interest at a rate of 12 percent will be charged if not met.

Since Air India is considered a separate entity post privatization the complaint against them stood dropped.

Consumers went ahead and filed an execution petition when the airline failed to comply with the order. The Commission passed an order rejecting Alliance air's petition under section 317 crpc for not appearing in person. It was noted that the airline was in default and NBW's were passed against them on 25th August of this year.

After passing of the coercive measure alliance air deposited a DD for the entire decretal amount including default interest making the total amount to over Rs 16 lakh.

The Commission took note of the following when terminating the execution petition.

"In view of the compliance of the order in toto and a memo filed with regard to the full satisfaction... as the order was complied and as per the not pressed endorsement made and full satisfaction memo filed this E.A. is terminated the NBW's issued is recalled."

Counsel for Complainants- Mr. Dinesh K Gilda