FLIGHTS DELAYED OR CANCELLED: KNOW HOW TRAVEL INSURANCE CAN HELP

The media is rife with stories of passengers stranded at airports and inside the aircraft (even the tarmac in one case) due to flight delays caused by dense fog conditions in Delhi and other parts of north India. Every winter, we see various flights getting delayed, diverted, or cancelled due to inclement weather.

Between January and November 2023, we saw 1.88 million passengers being affected due to flight delays and 249,000 passengers stranded due to flight cancellations. With Delhi experiencing one of the season's worst fog this past week, an estimated over 1,000 flights were delayed by various airlines.

Travel insurance can help in such situations. A travel cover pays out a flat benefit to the traveller if the flight is delayed beyond a certain time limit, which is typically 2-3 hours. A flight can get delayed or cancelled not only due to inclement weather, but also due to technical or operational reasons, airport, or ATC issues, among others. In fact, one of the highest numbers of travel insurance claims that we see every year at Digit are due to flight cancellations and in FY23, most claims came due to flight delays.

Despite the benefit, many don't buy travel insurance largely due to lack of awareness and the optimism bias that anything going wrong during the trip is highly unlikely. Travel insurance is not just to cover you for incidents like flight delay or cancellations.

It's much beyond that. A travel cover is designed to provide comprehensive coverage that can protect the traveller from various unforeseen circumstances.

Other lesser known covers