In the wake of a series of flight delays and cancellation complaints by passengers on social media, The Aviation watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has asked all the airlines to circulate text messages following every 30 minutes to all the passengers whose flight has been delayed, cancelled or whose boarding gates have changed.
In a directive sent to all the airlines in India, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) mentioned, "The airlines should take the responsibility to inform the passengers through text SMS in case if there is a delay in flight beyond 30 minutes or a boarding gate change has taken place at the airport."
The regulator has also appealed the travel agents to share the contact information of passengers with the airlines for ease in sending flight information updates.
Prior to the directive sent to all the airlines DGCA chief Arun Kumar on Thursday retained a meeting with the "appellate authority and nodal officers of all scheduled domestic airlines" to address the matters related to passenger grievance redressal.
The directive further stated some relevant statements following that the "Airlines must send repeated SMS after every 30 minutes to keep the passengers updated for the flight delay/cancellation/ boarding gate change."
It also noted, "The airlines must ensure close coordination with their travel agents and travel agents must share the mobile numbers of all the boarding passengers with the airlines for flight information updates. Even in case if a ticket has to be refunded back through a travel agent, the airlines must ensure that it happens in the concerned period."
Adding further, The regulator also said that "airlines must provide all necessary assistance to the passengers for their connecting flights. Also, It should ensure proper conduct and behaviour of their employees towards passengers,".
