Airlines not mandated to escort passengers to boarding gate: SC

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday held that an airline has no obligation to escort every passenger to the boarding gate of an airport after issuing boarding passes.

“After boarding pass is issued, the passenger is expected to ...head towards the boarding gate on his own. There is no contractual obligation on the airlines to escort every passenger after the boarding pass is issued to him at the check-in counter, up to the boarding gate,” a bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari held.

The court also said that if a passenger encounters difficulty in reporting at the boarding gate, he/she is expected to seek assistance from the ground staff of the airline and the latter cannot be held liable for inaction.

The ruling came in a consumer case involving IndiGo in which the National Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission had ordered the carrier to pay ~51,432 to certain passengers, who were late to reach the boarding gate after they were issued boarding passes. The passengers had booked their seats from Kolkata to Agartala which was scheduled to depart on January 1, 2017. They had reported at the check-in counter and were issued boarding passes.

They alleged they were left behind by IndiGo ground staff. and that airline staff denied their request to accommodate them on the next flight without payment of airfare and snatched their boarding passes. Due to this, they were forced to stay back at a Kolkata hotel for two nights. The Supreme Court noted that the respondent passengers had not claimed that they were prevented or obstructed by the ground staff from reaching the boarding gate.