An international airlines not having a code sharing agreement with another cannot be held liable for tickets issued to passengers or keeping intact the schedule of flights. No deficiency can be attributed to the airlines if the connecting flight is cancelled or rescheduled, the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has ruled in a 15-year-old case.
Allowing an appeal moved by Emirates Airlines, the National Commission has quashed an order of the Delhi State Consumer Disputes Commission of 2009 granting a compensation of Rs.5 lakh in favour of a person whose flights for the onward journey from Dubai to Malta and Malta to Djerba were cancelled. However, his reservation from New Delhi to Dubai was intact.
The complainant, Raj Kumar Sharma, stated that Emirates Airlines asked him to pay Rs.35,000 for getting confirmed tickets. He had come to India on leave from Libya in 1999 and the Libya Visa Authority refused to extend his emergency visa.
Emirates contended that Mr. Sharma’s ticket from Delhi to Dubai in May 1999 was confirmed, but it later received intimation from Air Malta about the change of schedule of its flights from Dubai to Malta. The airlines said it could not inform the complainant about rearrangement of flights for want of his contact number and submitted that it was not in a position to influence the Libya Visa Authority for extension of visa.
However, the State Commission allowed the complaint and granted compensation, against which the appeal was filed.
A National Commission Bench, comprising Justice K. S. Chaudhari and B. C. Gupta, stated in its recent order that no deficiency could be attributed to Emirates regarding the flight from Delhi to Dubai. “For the flights from Dubai to Malta and Malta to Djebra, tickets were not issued by Emirates...No deficiency can be attributed to Emirates for cancellation or rescheduling of [these] flights.”
The Commission said no document had been placed on record to substantiate that there was any code sharing agreement between Air Malta and Emirates. The Commission also found substance in the submission that the complaint was not maintainable in the absence of Air Malta as a party.
The State Commission had committed an error in imputing deficiency on the part of Emirates and allowing complaint and granting compensation, stated the National Commission while allowing the appeal and setting aside the impugned order.
