India DGCA guide: cancellation, denied boarding and delay rights
Checked 29 September 2026 against DGCA CAR Revision 4, dated 25 January 2023.
1. Which rules should you start with?
A flight involving India does not automatically use the European compensation bands. Start with the operating airline, departure airport, destination and the flight date. DGCA Civil Aviation Requirements, Section 3, Series M, Part IV address denied boarding, cancellation and delay facilities. The Indian rules use scheduled block time, the fare components and replacement-flight facts. A London departure can also raise UK261 questions; a European departure can raise EU261 questions. A Delhi-to-London flight on a non-UK, non-EU operator does not become covered by those laws solely because the destination is London. For foreign carriers, paragraph 3.6 of the CAR also requires attention to their country-of-origin rules. Ask which framework the airline applies before comparing amounts.
2. Cancellation notice changes the next step
Keep the original notification rather than relying on memory. If the airline gives at least two weeks’ notice, the CAR calls for an alternate flight or refund acceptable to the passenger. When notice is less than two weeks but at least 24 hours before departure, it must likewise offer an acceptable alternate flight or ticket refund. The separate financial-compensation provisions concern passengers not informed in accordance with those requirements, and the specified same-ticket missed-connection situation. Do not import the European 14-day compensation test into the Indian calculation: the DGCA text has its own structure. Record the time the message reached you, the original departure time and the alternative proposed, including whether you accepted it.
3. Cancellation caps: ₹5,000, ₹7,500 or ₹10,000
For a cancellation within the relevant compensation provision, the maximum is the lower of the booked one-way basic fare plus airline fuel charge and the applicable block-time cap. Up to and including one hour uses ₹5,000. More than one hour and up to two hours uses ₹7,500. More than two hours uses ₹10,000. Block time means the period from the aircraft first moving for take-off until it finally rests at the end of the flight. It is not simply airborne time and it is not your waiting time at the terminal. Use the scheduled flight details and ask the airline to explain its block-time calculation. The CAR describes an acceptable alternate flight or compensation together with the full ticket refund; do not assume every passenger who accepts an alternate receives the same cancellation payment.
4. A worked fare example
Suppose the scheduled block time is 1 hour 40 minutes, the one-way basic fare is ₹4,800 and the airline fuel charge is ₹700. The comparison base is ₹5,500 and the relevant cap is ₹7,500, so the illustrative cancellation amount is ₹5,500 if all other conditions for that payment are met. The cap is not automatically the amount owed. Airport taxes, optional seat charges and your return journey’s price are not added to this fare-plus-fuel base merely because they appear on the same receipt. If the invoice does not separate the components, request an itemised fare breakdown. The ticket refund is a separate calculation; do not confuse that refund with the capped compensation amount.
5. Contact details and extraordinary circumstances
The CAR excludes cancellation financial compensation where adequate contact details were not supplied at booking or ticket issue. That does not mean every other remedy disappears: refund, reasonable alternate arrangements and relevant facilities require separate consideration. Keep evidence of the email address and phone number recorded by the airline or agent. Qualifying extraordinary circumstances outside the airline’s control can also exclude the specified compensation when reasonable measures could not avoid the cancellation. Request the exact written cause and supporting explanation. A generic phrase such as operational reasons is not a complete factual account. Do not state that the carrier was at fault unless your evidence supports it; you can ask it to explain the applicable exception.
6. Involuntary denied boarding has different arithmetic
Denied boarding generally concerns a passenger with a confirmed booking who presented as required but was not carried; volunteering to give up a seat is a different arrangement. Keep proof of timely check-in and the reason for refusal. An alternate flight scheduled to depart within one hour of the original departure falls into the no-compensation exception described by the CAR. For an alternate scheduled within 24 hours, the formula is 200% of the one-way basic fare plus fuel charge, capped at ₹10,000. For an alternate scheduled more than 24 hours later, the formula is 400%, capped at ₹20,000. Where the passenger does not take the alternate, the specified path combines a full ticket refund with the 400% formula capped at ₹20,000. These are departure-time comparisons, not final-arrival delay bands.
7. Delay facilities use waiting-time thresholds
For passengers who checked in on time, the CAR’s meal-and-refreshment thresholds depend on scheduled block time. A flight with block time up to 2½ hours reaches the threshold at a departure delay of two hours. For block time over 2½ and up to five hours, the threshold is three hours. For longer flights, it is four hours. Keep the announced original schedule, later updates and any vouchers or receipts. A two-hour airport wait is therefore not a universal cash-compensation trigger. Hotel, long-delay alternate-travel and refund provisions have additional timing conditions, including special overnight circumstances. Ask the airline for the applicable care arrangement while you are waiting, rather than treating a later compensation calculation as a substitute for practical assistance.
8. Connections and separate bookings
The same-ticket distinction matters. Save the entire itinerary, not just the delayed boarding pass. Note whether the onward sector shares the ticket number and whether the missed connection followed cancellation or denied boarding. The CAR has separate wording for these situations; the correct provision depends on what happened to the first flight and when you reached the final destination. Two bookings purchased together through a website are not necessarily one through ticket. Before accepting a new flight at your own expense, ask the operating airline what protection and rerouting it offers. If another country’s rules may cover the itinerary, have that complete journey checked as well. A calculator cannot resolve an unclear ticket contract from airport codes alone.
9. Prepare a claim the airline can assess
Make a short chronology: booking, scheduled departure, notice, check-in, disruption, replacement offer and eventual travel or refund choice. Attach only the evidence the official channel needs. Separate the request for a fare refund, any statutory compensation and reimbursement of reasonable expenses into clear items. Identify the operating airline where a codeshare is involved. If an agent took your payment, keep the agent’s receipt and refund correspondence too, but do not send the same demand repeatedly to unrelated departments. Ask for the applicable CAR paragraph, the fare components and the reason for any refusal. Keep the case number and a copy of the submitted form because a confirmation screen can disappear after the session closes.
10. Escalation, payment and realistic expectations
Start with the airline’s official grievance channel and keep its written reply. If the matter remains unresolved, the CAR identifies the AirSewa app or portal as a grievance route. Provide the booking and correspondence only through the authority’s official system when requested. A filed complaint is not an automatic award, and this site cannot predict the airline’s response time or the regulator’s decision. The CAR permits specified compensation by cash or bank transfer, with travel vouchers requiring the passenger’s signed agreement. Read any settlement before accepting it, especially if it combines a refund, compensation and a release of further claims. Keep a record of the amount and payment date. FlightRefundCalc offers free preparation tools; it does not submit the case or receive your money.
Try the INR cancellation arithmetic
Amount-only illustration after eligibility is established: first check notice, contact details, alternative-travel choice and exceptions.
₹5,500