2,364 Passengers Denied Boarding By Airlines In June: DGCA Report

Directorate General For Civil Aviation’s (DGCA) data has mentioned that a total of 2,364 passengers were denied boarding in June. A staggering 2,719 passengers were denied boarding in May, making it the highest number in 2024. Denied boarding means that occasionally too many people will attempt to check in for a flight. Due to this step, some passengers may be asked or forced to give up their place on the flight. An amount of Rs 2.5 crore was spent by the airlines as compensation and facilities after the aforementioned people were denied boarding. According to the data of the Director General of Civil Aviation, the maximum cases of denied boarding have been reportedly seen in Air India. As per the reports, Air India had refused to take 1920 passengers on the journey in June. These passengers were victims of denied boarding, despite having valid tickets and timely arrival at airports.

In terms of denied boarding, Vistara Airlines comes next after Air India had refused to carry 188 passengers. SpiceJet ranks third with 159, Indigo with 84, Akasa Air with 10 and Alliance Air with 3 passengers.

Air India was on the defaulter list of the DGCA in June when it was issued a show cause notice citing violations of aviation regulations. The regulations had a special mention of the passenger care issue during flight delays. Air India was directed to respond within three days or face potential enforcement action. This notice came hours after Air India passengers of a Delhi-San Francisco flight faced discomfort due to inadequate cooling in the cabin. The AI flight from the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport was delayed for over 20 hours. Flight AI 183, originally slated to take off at 3:20 on Thursday (May 30), was rescheduled for Friday(May 31) afternoon.

During the inordinate delay, the commuters were reportedly made to wait without proper air-conditioning, causing several flyers to faint. Reporting about the delay, a passenger wrote on Twitter that it was only after some passengers fainted that the airline allowed others to exit the aircraft.