KATHMANDU, JANUARY 14

The National Human Rights Commission has said the airlines' negligence in timely taking off and not informing passengers about delayed flights on time violates passengers' consumer rights.

The human rights watchdog body has drawn a conclusion that it was a sheer negligence on part of the airlines for the delayed flight service and subsequent trouble to the air passengers.

The constitutional body came to this conclusion based on its on-site monitoring of the services being delivered by different airports across the country, including Tribhuvan International Airport.

In a preliminary study carried out by the NHRC's federal and province offices during three months, the air passengers, mostly new mothers, patients, women, people with disability, senior citizens and those having emergency works have been bearing the brunt of negligence of airports and airlines.

In regard to the consumers' rights to travel without hassles, the NHRC is also planning to ask for information from the concerned airlines companies about the managerial measures taken to not allow delay in flights and make the stakeholders responsible to that end.

Presenting the monitoring report at a discussion 'flight service and citizens' consumer rights', NHRC's Under-secretary Manju Khatiwada said that the passengers have been facing trouble mainly due to failure in imparting information timely and accurately.

As per the data generated from the onsite study of airports, passengers and airlines, the flight delay ranges from half-an-hour to eight hours and passengers are being troubled for the airlines' ignorance in timely imparting right information.

The monitoring report has also pointed out that the passengers have been compelled to consume expensive and sub-standard food stuffs on the airport premises while awaiting the flights for long.

The passengers have been facing various problem resulting from lack of adequate basic facilities such as waiting space, drinking water and rest rooms. The passengers are mostly facing troubles in mountain and hill flights.

On the occasion, NHRC Chairperson Tapa Bahadur Magar drew attention of the concerned agencies and authorities towards protecting consuming rights and delivering public services in an effective manner.

A version of this article appears in the print on January 15, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.