Ventura Air Connect has been ordered to pay a total of Rs 69,000 to a passenger after the Gujarat State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission held that the airline could not treat a flat aircraft tyre as force majeure when two-thirds of its fleet was already unavailable for maintenance.
The ruling followed the cancellation of flight VA-702, scheduled to operate from Amreli to Surat on October 2, 2023. Passenger Kamlesh Jani, who had booked two tickets and travelled from Khambha to board the flight, reached the airport before learning that the service would not operate. According to the case details reported by The Times of India, the airline’s cancellation email arrived only after the scheduled departure time.
The cancellation resulted in a confrontation between Jani and the airline’s ground staff. Ventura Air Connect subsequently blacklisted him, alleging that he had behaved aggressively towards its chief executive officer. Jani then approached the Amreli District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, challenging both the cancellation-related conduct and the decision to blacklist him.
The district commission directed the airline to reimburse Rs 6,000 for Jani’s to-and-fro taxi expenses. It also awarded Rs 50,000 for mental agony and harassment and Rs 3,000 towards litigation costs. In addition, it instructed Ventura Air Connect to remove Jani’s name from its blacklist.
The airline appealed against that order before the state commission. It argued that a flat tyre had developed on the aircraft, leaving it with no option but to cancel the flight in compliance with aviation safety requirements. The airline also submitted that the ticket amount had been refunded and that Jani had not established that he had suffered harassment.
The state commission rejected the appeal. It noted that Ventura Air Connect had a fleet of three aircraft, of which two were already undergoing maintenance when the incident occurred. With only one aircraft available for the day’s operations, the commission found that the airline had not maintained an adequate contingency arrangement.
“The sole operational aircraft should develop a flat tyre is not an act of God but a foreseeable consequence of the opponent having left itself no margin for contingency,” the commission said, according to the report. It held that the circumstances reflected a lapse in maintenance and fleet management attributable to the airline and amounted to deficiency in service.
The state commission imposed an additional Rs 10,000 payment on Ventura Air Connect. This took the total monetary compensation and costs awarded across the two proceedings to Rs 69,000. The direction requiring the airline to remove Jani’s name from its blacklist also remains in force.
