Air India cancelled flight & levied fine on me: P Chidambaram

High airline cancellation charges have long been a sore point with air travellers. Now the latest to join the list of disgruntled passengers is senior Congress leader P Chidambaram who alleged he booked a ticket on Air India. The airline cancelled the flight and deducted Rs 3,000 as cancellation charge, the former finance minister alleged in a tweet on Thursday.

“I booked Del(hi)-Mum (bai) by AI 665 for Saturday. Ticket issued. AI, not me, cancelled the flight today and charged me Rs 3,000 for cancellation!” Chidambaram said in a tweet, tagging aviation ministers Suresh Prabhu, Jayant Sinha and AI.

“Has AI found a new way to become profitable?! If 100 tickets had been issued, AI will make a neat profit of Rs 3 lakh simply by cancelling the flight! Bravo!” he Tweeted.


Air India replied to the former FM on Twitter, saying: “Sir it is true that AI 665 of October 27 is being combined with subsequent flight operating an hour later. The ticket was issued by a travel agent. The travel agent has erroneously levied cancellation charges. Travel agent is being advised to amend the same.”

Airlines are not supposed to charge any cancellation fee if they cancel flights on their own.