Air India Might Have To Compensate USD $8.8 Million To Passengers On Delhi-Chicago Flight!

Following an incident that happened on a Delhi-Chicago Flight on 9^th May, Air India may have to pay its 323 passengers onboard a compensation of $8.8 million.

The flight was delayed due to Directorate General Of Civil Aviation’s (DGCA) order to restrict variations or changes in flight duty time limitation(FDTL) of the flight’s crew.

Here are the details of the incident that took place on 9^th May 2018 –

• Air India flight AI 127 was to depart from Delhi and reach Chicago in 16 hours.
• The Flight was diverted to Milwaukee, due to bad weather conditions.
• The duration of a flight from Milwaukee to Chicago is around 19 minutes.
• The flight could have taken off after the weather cleared up, however, the flight crew was exhausted after travelling for 16 hours and waiting for 2 hours for the weather to settle down.
• The crew was permitted to only one landing due to the DGCA’s decision to restrict variations in FDTL.
• The Airline had no choice but to arrange for a new crew.
• This change in crew caused the flight to be delayed by 6 hours at the Milwaukee airport. Passengers stayed onboard during this time.
• Milwaukee airport itself was in distress due to diverted flights and did not have a gate available for the passengers to proceed to and get some rest.
• Amongst the 323 passengers, there were 41 people in wheelchairs, 2 infants and an autistic kid onboard.
• According to US guidelines, if passengers are onboard for more than four hours for international flights, the airline has to compensate travellers.
• This delay affected passengers at the Chicago airport waiting for the Air India flight which was to travel back to Delhi.

In such cases, the airline has to pay $ 27,500 per passenger. If Air India is given the order to compensate for this delay, they will have to pay all the 323 passengers, which amounts to $ 8.8 Million.

Air India and The Federation Of Indian Airlines, represented by IndiGo, Jet Airways, SpiceJet and GoAir, submitted a plea on May 15^th to reverse DGCA’s decision to not permit variations in the FDTL. The High court has asked the government and the DGCA for their take on the incident and what should be done to solve this situation.