With more and more cases of air passengers expressing anger and dissatisfaction with airline services, the Civil Aviation Ministry plans a new passenger-friendly mechanism that will bring all airlines under a more accountable system. By next year, you will be able to actually assess how passenger-friendly is your airline, how it scores on passenger amenities and facilities versus the other carriers.

On the Ministry’s instructions, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will soon be framing standards to assess airline performance on a range of criteria. These would include punctuality in flight arrival and departure, behaviour of airline staff, food and beverages, seating facilities on board, maintenance and housekeeping of aircraft, timely information in case of flight delay or cancellation and refund of ticket money in time. The assessment will work like a report card on airline performance, making it simpler for passengers to understand the airline they choose to travel on.

“We will soon start working on framing and assessing airlines on some standards to make it easier for passengers and also bring more accountability in the system. While DGCA’s primary function is to regulate airlines, the Ministry has asked them to look into this issue as well to ensure timely and reasonable services to passengers. DGCA will, therefore, step in as there have been several complaints about the way airlines deal with passengers. So criteria like whether airlines arrive on time will be assessed besides passenger services,” said a senior official.

Airlines are proposed to be assessed on several counts from the time a passenger buys a ticket till the time he deplanes and collects the luggage.

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