Kenya Airways (KQ) has been forced to refund Sh415,263 as the cost incurred by a passenger after being denied boarding its aircraft.
The compensation follows the conclusion of investigations by the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) following a complaint by a passenger only referred to as Mr Christopher.
The national carrier is alleged to have oversold tickets from Kigali to Nairobi on February 23, 2018 resulting in the non-admission of Mr Christopher who missed his connection flight to London from Kenya’s Capital.
Upon arrival to Nairobi via an alternative flight by RwandAir, the complainant was forced to pay for a KQ flight to London but was later denied compensation in spite of an advisory from the carrier to apply for a refund.
In its defence, Kenya Airways had maintained Mr Christopher was denied boarding due to late arrival at the airport.
However, CAK has established this was not the case through collaborated witness accounts which mirrored the complainants’ version of accounts.
KQ has been found to be in violation of provisions of the Competition Act including using its higher bargaining position to unconscionably deny the complainant boarding along with the use of unfair tactics for the declined refund.
Additionally, the carrier has been fingered for knowingly providing wrong information to the Authority regarding to the reasons as to why the complainant was denied boarding.
In addition to the forced compensation, Kenya Airways has been asked to commit to informing customers reasons for being involuntary denied boarding and be duty bound to remit appropriate compensation.
Further, KQ has been ordered to commit to the refunds within 60 days from the date the claim is lodged.
