Flying high: man wins case against airline after 10 years

Flying high: man wins case against airline after 10 years Granted compensation of Rs 25,000 for having boarding pass snatched out of his hands by airline staff who gave his seat to another passenger By Aneesh Phadnis Posted On Saturday, January 24, 2009 at 02:36:36 AM The managing director of a city-based textile firm has been granted Rs 25,000 from Sri Lankan Airlines as compensation for being stranded mid-way during a business trip to Colombo in 1998. Airline staff had snatched his boarding pass during a stopover at Chennai, so that they could give his ticket to a passenger who urgently needed to board the plane. Suresh Kumar, MD of Adilon Synthetics, had a confirmed Air Lanka (now known as Sri Lankan Airlines) ticket for September 30, 1998 on a Mumbai-Colombo flight via Chennai. He boarded the flight at Mumbai but on reaching Chennai, an airline staffer snatched Kumar's boarding pass out of his hand while he was completing immigration formalities. Kumar moved the district consumer forum, which ruled in his favour and ordered the airline to pay Rs 8,500 as compensation. But the amount wasn't nearly enough for Kumar, who said in his complaint that he was made to wait for 12 hours at the Chennai airport and suffered a loss of $75,000 as a result of missing an important meeting in Colombo. Seeking more justice, Kumar then filed an appeal with the State Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission. The airline admitted before the commission that it had denied boarding to Kumar and that the seat was given to a passenger who was carrying a dead body home for the last rites. B B Vagyani, president of the commission, said that he did not think it was wrong on the airline's part to give priority to a passenger who urgently had to board the plane. However, he stressed that there was no excuse for snatching the boarding pass from Kumar. "The conduct of the staff was highly objectionable. The misconduct is a serious matter for which the appellant [Kumar] must get adequate compensation,'' he stated in the order. Kumar's advocate, U B Wavikar, said, "The airline has no right to snatch a boarding pass after issuing it. Furthermore, the airline is expected to take care of a passenger if it denies boarding. However, Kumar was not even given accommodation in Chennai.'' He added that the airline had sought dismissal of the case stating it was time barred. However, its plea was not accepted.

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