Let passengers return to lounge if there is long delay on tarmac: court

If there is a flight delay of, say, more than three hours on the tarmac due to lack of clearance from the Air Traffic Control, then passengers on board should be permitted to get back to the airport lounge, the Supreme Court has held.
The airline should also provide them food and water, said a Bench of Justices R.V. Raveendran and A.K. Patnaik. “Normally, if the aircraft has remained on the tarmac for more than two or three hours after boarding is closed, the passengers should be permitted to get back to the airport lounge to get the facilitation service from the airline. Whenever there is such delay beyond a reasonable period (say three hours), the passengers should be permitted to get back to the lounge.”
Writing the judgment, Justice Raveendran said: “If for any unforeseen reason, the passengers are required to be on board for a period beyond three hours or more, without the aircraft taking off, an appropriate provision for food and water should be made, apart from providing access to toilets.”
The Bench made it clear that congestion at the airport on account of delayed or cancelled flights could not be a ground for preventing the passengers from returning to the lounge when there was a delay of more than two hours after the completion of boarding.
09/07/11 J Venkatesan/The Hindu

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Categories: Airports Jul 2011