P Chidambaram, a leader of the Congress party, recently claimed that a student was denied entry onto a plane due to it being overbooked. According to Chidambaram, the student and two other passengers were off-loaded at the boarding gate without any compensation for the inconvenience caused.
Chidambaram took to social media to share his grievance, stating, “I have the boarding pass of a student-passenger who had a ticket to fly from city X to city Y. At the boarding gate, he and two other passengers were off-loaded because the airline had overbooked passengers on the flight! He was not offered a refund of the fare or compensation for his loss of travel and the inconvenience.”
While Chidambaram did not mention the specific airline or airport where the incident occurred, he encouraged others who have faced similar situations to come forward. He also tagged India’s aviation regulator and questioned whether there are any rules in place to handle such occurrences.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has not yet responded to Chidambaram’s tweet.
Overbooking is a common practice among airlines worldwide, where more bookings are accepted than the number of available seats in order to maximize revenue. The assumption is that some passengers will not show up for their flights.
In a previous case in 2018, when a passenger filed a request in the Delhi High Court regarding overbooking, the DGCA’s counsel stated that airlines in India are not allowed to overbook. If an airline does overbook and a passenger is left behind, the airline is obligated to compensate them or make alternative travel arrangements promptly.
As of now, we are awaiting a response to Chidambaram’s concerns.
