'Higher compensation for Indian passengers'

New Delhi, Jan 18: The government today decided to raise the compensation for international air passengers to and from India and their baggage and cargo by ratifying the Montreal Convention 1999.

The move would end the discrimination between air passengers originating from India and abroad in the matter of compensation.

This would be done by amending the Carriage by Air Act, 1972 and a Bill to this effect would be moved in the coming Budget session of Parliament.

The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi told reporters.

With this, the benefits of higher compensation and fifth jurisdiction as provided in the Montreal Convention 1999 would become available to international air passengers to and from India.

The Convention re-establishes the urgently needed uniformity and predictability of the rules relating to the international carriage of passengers, baggage and cargo.

Non-accession of the Convention by India was giving rise to a situation involving serious discrimination between the passengers of the same flight with regard to compensation.

For example, passengers whose journey originated in the United States or the United Kingdom were entitled to mucher higher compensation compared to those whose journey originated in India.

Futher, India's failure to accede to the Montreal Convention would result in the denial of fifth jurisdiction benefits to its citizens, Mr Dasmunsi said.

While maintaining a core of provisions, which have successfully served the international air transport community for several decades, the new convention achieves the required modernisation in a number of key areas.

It protects the interests of the passenger by introducing a modern two-tier liability system and by facilitating the swift recovery of proven damages without the need for lengthy litigation.

Air carriers, on the other hand, would be able to achieve substantive operational savings through the use of electronically produced and simplified documents of carriage, especially in the cargo field, and the ability to manage risks more efficiently.

UNI