Indian consumer body asks for Biman penalty

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Delhi State Consumer Commission has asked Biman Bangladesh Airlines Ltd to pay Rs 4.5 lakh to 12 of its passengers for cancelling their seats back in 2004.

The seats were cancelled because, the airlines said at that time, they had not re-confirmed their booking 72 hours before departure.

Biman authorities yesterday said they were not aware of the latest development of the incident.

When contacted, MA Momen, managing director and chief executive officer of the national flag carrier, said, “I was not here in Biman when the incident happened. We will take necessary steps after getting all information in this regard.”

Our New Delhi correspondent reports: The commission held Biman guilty of inefficiency in service and unfair trade practice as, it said, the passengers were denied seats even when they had reached the airport in time and the flight took off with several seats unoccupied.

The 12 passengers had bought Delhi-Bangkok-Delhi tickets from an agent of the airlines. They left the Indian capital for Bangkok on March 11, 2004 and re-confirmed their return tickets on March 13 at the airlines’ local office, the commission said quoting them.

The passengers alleged that they were not provided seats for their return journey on March 17, 2004 and their plea to accommodate them on the next flight was also rejected. So, they had to buy fresh tickets from Thai Airways to return to India.

Biman argued that denying seats to the passengers was well within the rules and norms under the Warsaw Convention that regulates liability of airlines.

It contended that according to the rules, if reconfirmation was not received 72 hours before the departure of a flight, reservation stands cancelled, and the airlines would be free to allot seat to any other passenger.

But the commission said had that been the case, the airlines should have re-allotted the seats to some other passengers after it cancelled the reservations. There were many unoccupied seats on the flight and there was no reason for Biman to deny the 12 passengers seats even if their tickets had been cancelled on technical grounds, it added.

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