Flight compensation in India: your rights under the DGCA Passenger Charter
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Whether you're flying to India, back from India or between Indian cities, you have rights when a flight doesn't go to plan. Air passenger rights in India are set out in the country's Passenger Charter, drawn up by the Ministry of Civil Aviation and enforced by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). It spells out what an airline owes you when you're denied boarding, or when a flight is cancelled or badly delayed. The amounts are modest next to what you would claim under UK or EU law, but they are real: depending on the disruption, you may be owed assistance, a refund or a cash payment. Here's what the Charter covers, and when a stronger set of rules might apply to your trip.
AT A GLANCE
India passenger rights at a glance
The Passenger Charter covers every flight to, from and within India, on Indian and foreign airlines alike
Denied boarding through overbooking: up to ₹20,000 (~£155) in compensation
Cancellation at short notice: up to ₹10,000 (~£78)
Delays bring no cash compensation, but the airline must provide free meals and refreshments
Overnight delays of 6+ hours on flights timed between 20:00 and 03:00: free hotel accommodation
Force majeure (extraordinary circumstances) removes the airline's duty to pay compensation
What is the DGCA Passenger Charter?
India's air passenger rights don't sit in a single Act of Parliament. They come from a binding regulation called the Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR), and specifically from CAR Section 3, Series M, Part IV, issued by the DGCA and last revised in August 2024. The Ministry of Civil Aviation restates these rules in plain language in its Passenger Charter, but it's the CAR that carries the legal weight: an airline can't contract out of it or offer you less than it sets out.
The rules cover every scheduled flight that departs from, arrives in or operates within India, whatever the airline's nationality. A Delhi to London departure, a domestic Mumbai to Bengaluru hop and a London to Delhi arrival are all within scope. The one point worth flagging now, and we'll come back to it, is that if your flight leaves the United Kingdom, the UK law applies on top, and it's usually the stronger claim by some distance.
Flight delay compensation in India: what are the rules?
Here's the part that catches most passengers out: India has no system of cash compensation for delays. Where UK 261 would entitle you to a fixed sum once a flight runs late enough, the Passenger Charter takes a different approach. Rather than a payment, it makes the airline responsible for your welfare: once you've checked in on time, the longer you're kept waiting, the more the carrier has to provide. Meals come first, then a refund or a seat on another flight, and, in the end, a hotel room for the night.
Short delay (2+ hours)
Wait two hours or more and the airline owes you food and drink.
Delay of 6+ hours
Past six hours, you can take a re-booking or your money back.
Overnight delay
A long overnight hold-up means a hotel room on the airline.
Short delay (2+ hours)
Check in on time and you're owed free meals and refreshments once the delay passes a set threshold. That threshold isn't two hours for everyone, though: it scales with the flight's block time, the total scheduled time from leaving one gate to reaching the next.
Short flights (up to 2.5 hours): help kicks in after a 2-hour wait
Medium flights (2.5 to 5 hours): after 3 hours
Longer flights: after 4 hours
Delay of 6+ hours
Once a domestic flight is running more than six hours late, the airline has to give you a real choice: a seat on an alternative service leaving within six hours, or a full refund of your fare. And it can't spring this on you at the gate. Where a flight is being rescheduled, you should hear about the new departure time at least 24 hours ahead.
Overnight delay
This is where the Charter turns more generous. If your flight slips by more than 24 hours, or by more than six hours when it was due to leave between 20:00 and 03:00, the airline has to put you up in a hotel and cover the transfers there and back.
Did you know?
If your flight took off from the UK, UK 261 applies whatever the airline, and a long delay can be worth up to £520 in compensation. A flight into the UK from India can count too, as long as you're travelling with a UK or EU carrier. Departures from the EU fall under EC 261, while countries such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia run their own passenger-rights schemes. It's well worth checking which law is the stronger one for your particular journey.
Flight cancellation compensation in India
Cancellations are treated differently from delays: here, a cash payment is on the table. Whether you receive one comes down to two things: how much notice the airline gave you and whether you took the alternative flight it offered.
Cancelled with two weeks' to 24 hours' notice
If the airline tells you less than two weeks but more than 24 hours before departure, it owes you a choice between an alternative flight and a full refund of your fare. At this stage that is the extent of it: no separate compensation is due.
Cancelled with less than 24 hours' notice (or a missed connection)
This is the point at which a cash payment enters the picture. If the airline gives you under 24 hours' notice, or you miss a connecting flight booked on the same ticket, it must still offer an alternative flight or a full refund, and now pay compensation on top. The sum depends on the flight's block time:
Flight block time | Compensation |
|---|---|
Up to 1 hour | Up to ₹5,000 (~£39) |
1-2 hours | Up to ₹7,500 (~£58) |
Over 2 hours | Up to ₹10,000 (~£78) |
Whichever is lower applies: the figure above, or your one-way basic fare plus fuel surcharge.
Denied boarding compensation in India
Overbooking is the practice of selling more seats than the aircraft actually has. If you held a confirmed booking, arrived in good time and were still turned away, you have been denied boarding. The airline's first step has to be a call for volunteers willing to give up their seats in return for benefits. If too few come forward, the remainder is treated as involuntary denied boarding, and compensation becomes due.
How much you receive depends on how quickly the airline can get you onto another flight:
Situation | What you get |
|---|---|
Alternate flight within 1 hour | No compensation |
Alternate flight within 24 hours | Up to ₹10,000 (~£78) |
Alternate flight after 24+ hours | Up to ₹20,000 (~£155) |
The figures work out as 200% of your one-way basic fare plus fuel surcharge if you're rerouted within 24 hours, or 400% if it takes longer or you decline the offer, always subject to the caps above.
Extraordinary circumstances (force majeure)
There is a limit to all of this. An airline doesn't have to pay compensation when the disruption was genuinely beyond its control, what the Charter calls force majeure. The recognised categories include:
Severe weather and natural disasters
Political instability, civil unrest or conflict
Air traffic control decisions
Security threats
The operative word is genuinely. Force majeure is meant for events an airline could not have prevented, not for problems of its own making. A crew shortage, a routine technical fault or poor scheduling sits with the carrier, and presenting it as an extraordinary circumstance does not make the compensation disappear.
Other rights for air passengers in India
Delays, cancellations and denied boarding are the situations that tend to make the headlines, but your rights as an airline customer in India go further. A few more are worth knowing before you fly.
How to claim flight compensation in India
If you think an airline has fallen short of its duties under the Charter, there is a clear order to work through when pursuing what you're owed.
1. Know where you stand
Start with what you're actually entitled to, using the sections above or the Passenger Charter itself. The airline can't keep this from you either: a notice setting out your rights to compensation and assistance has to be on display at check-in desks and boarding gates.
2. Claim directly with the airline
Put your claim to the airline first. You can do this at the help desks at departure and arrival airports, or online. Where you've been denied boarding or your flight has been cancelled, the airline is obliged to hand you a written notice explaining the compensation and assistance rules.
3. Escalate if the airline won't cooperate
Getting nowhere? Take it to AirSewa (airsewa.gov.in), the government's grievance portal and app for air travel complaints. If the response still doesn't satisfy you, the matter can go further, to a statutory body or to court under Indian law.
4. Check whether a stronger law applies
Here's the part many passengers miss entirely. Your journey may also fall under another set of air passenger rights, and the gap can be considerable. If your flight left the UK, UK 261 can be worth up to £520, with EC 261 offering comparable amounts on EU departures. AirHelp doesn't currently handle claims under India's Passenger Charter, but we can tell you whether your flight qualifies under the rules we do cover.
