Civil Aviation Ministry Secretary Samir Kumar Sinha
The Centre has decided to put in place a series of measures to safeguard the interests of air passengers in the wake of recent flight disruptions, Union Civil Aviation Secretary Samir Kumar Sinha told businessline.
According to Sinha, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) is in the process of instituting new systems and strengthening institutional capacity to deal with large-scale operational failures.
“The Centre, while taking cognisance of the recent flight disruptions, has decided to institute a set of measures to safeguard the interests of air passengers,” the Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, told businessline.
Citing one of the recent initiatives, he said the Ministry has set up a 24×7 passenger complaints redressal centre to handle grievances on a continuous basis.
Video Credit: Businessline
Elaborating further, the Secretary said the centre uses the latest technology to capture passenger feedback and complaints, including those received through social media platforms.
Besides, Sinha said that, in keeping with evolving requirements, the centre may also incorporate technologies such as artificial intelligence to batch and analyse common complaints, which can then be redressed in a systematic manner.
Apart from this, the Secretary said that all arms of the Ministry, including the aviation regulator, are being equipped with the necessary expertise to deal with ‘black swan’ events such as the recent network disruption at airline major IndiGo.
Protect passengers
“We are working to build in redundancies to protect passengers, whether through measures such as air fare caps, minimal cancellation charges through policy framework, on-ground inspections, vigilance on operations or by encouraging capacity addition, without compromising on safety,” he told businessline.
According to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the passenger assistance control room (PACR) was operationalised in the first week of December in response to operational disruptions that led to a surge in passenger grievances.
The PACR has been established as a 24×7 mechanism for coordinated grievance redressal, integrating multiple passenger engagement channels with real-time coordination among stakeholders.
As per the Ministry, the PACR enables direct interaction with airline representatives and continuous monitoring of passenger issues, allowing grievances to be addressed in a time-bound manner.
The mechanism is designed to ensure coordinated responses across airlines, airports, regulators and the Ministry.
Control room
Furthermore, the Ministry cited that the need for a centralised control room emerged as air travel expanded beyond metropolitan centres, bringing in first-time and regional flyers and increasing the number of passenger engagement channels.
During the operational disruptions involving airline major IndiGo in the first week of December, passenger grievances were received across platforms such as social media, call centres and the Air Sewa grievance portal.
These complaints largely related to baggage handling issues, flight cancellations and delays in refunds.
As per the Ministry, while individual stakeholders responded within their respective mandates, the absence of a unified coordination mechanism for real-time engagement highlighted the need for a centralised passenger assistance control room at the Ministry level.
Published on December 28, 2025
