Recent delays in domestic flight schedules have reawakened interest in consumer rights in Indonesia as they apply to air passengers experiencing flight delays and cancellations.
Minister of Transportation Regulation Number 89 of 2015 Paragraph 2 classifies three types of flight delays and the appropriate compensation that must be paid.
The three types of flight delays are:
- Delayed for operational reasons.
- Overbooking beyond the seating capacity of the aircraft.
- Flight cancellation.
As reported by Kompas.com, flight delays are calculated from the time of “push-back” from the originating airport’s parking bay against the published departure time and on the time when the plane comes to a halt in its parking slot and shuts down its main engines against the published arrival time.
The mandated compensation due to commercial air passengers is linked to the length of the actual delay.
- Aircraft with a delayed departure of 30-60 minutes, passengers should be provided by the Airline with a complimentary soft drink or mineral water.
- Aircraft delaying their departure by between 61- and 120-minutes, passengers should be provided by the Airline with a complimentary light snack and light liquid refreshment.
- Aircraft with a delayed departure of between 121-and 180- minutes, passengers – should be provided by the Airline with a full mean and accompanying drink.
- Aircraft with a delayed departure of between 181-and 240-minutes, passengers should be provided by the Airline with both a snack and a full meal with an accompanying drink.
- Aircraft with a delayed departure exceeding 240 minutes (4 hours) should pay each passenger compensation of Rp. 300,000 each. This compensation shall be given by the Airline in cash or a voucher that can be exchanged for cash within 3 x 24 hours of the canceled flight’s time.
- If an airline cancels a scheduled flight, passengers must be given a full refund of their ticket price or a seat on the next flight departure to the desired destination. The rules stipulate that the official paying the compensation must be of the rank of general manager, station manager, or someone appointed by these senior managers to make the refund. Tickets purchased in cash should be refunded in cash by the Airline, while for tickets purchased in a non-cash transaction (e.g., credit card), a refund must be made by the Airline to the credit card used to purchase the original ticket within a maximum period of 30-calendar-days.
- Passengers booked on a canceled flight and rebooked on the next flight to the desired destination are exempted from paying any surcharge, including the cost of a flight-class upgrade. If the rebooked flight is done at a lower class than the original ticket, the Airline must compensate the passenger for any decrease in ticketing class.
