In India, most complaints by flyers are about harassment by airline staff

In its report, a Standing Committee said that it 'feels that the role of the Ministry should be more than being a transmitter of passenger grievances to the respective airlines'

Most complaints filed by air passengers in the Civil Aviation Ministry's grievance redressal system relates to behaviour of airline staff and harassment of flyers, according to an official document.

'Loss of baggage' category in Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring system (CPGRAM) has received second highest number of complaints from air passengers, showed a Ministry document accessed by PTI.

The document shows that while 3,524 complaints were received in CPGRAM in the category of 'harassment of passengers/ staff crew behaviour', the number of complaints that were received in the category of 'loss of baggage' was 1,822.

The category of 'ticketing/fare/refund' received third highest number of complaints. It recorded 1,011 grievances as yet.

The CPGRAM is an online system with an objective of "speedy redress and effective monitoring of grievances" by ministries or departments or organisations of central government.

The CPGRAM was established by the Centre in 2007-08.

When asked for data regarding the number of complaints received against each airline, a senior ministry official said, "There is no option in CPGRAM to segregate the grievances airline-wise."

Last year, the civil aviation ministry had told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture that "systematic grievance redressal mechanism has been already put in place through which passenger grievances received by this office are forwarded to the concerned airline for redressal directly with the complainant as the travel by air is a contractual matter between the airline and the passenger".

In its report dated December 21, 2018, the Standing Committee said that it "feels that the role of the Ministry should be more than being a transmitter of passenger grievances to the respective airlines".

"The Ministry should ensure that the respective airline has taken necessary action to redress the grievance within a stipulated timeframe. The Ministry should also penalize the airlines in case of not solving the grievances to the satisfaction of passengers," the committee had said.