National carrier lists out guidelines for dealing with auch passengers

Air India plans to impose fines of up to ₹15 lakh on unruly passengers for causing flight delays.

Under the proposal, the national carrier will impose a financial cost of ₹5 lakh on unruly passengers causing a delay of up to one hour, ₹10 lakh for a delay between one and two hours and ₹15 lakh for delay beyond two hours.

The proposal comes in the wake of the incident last month of Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad manhandling an Air India staffer. The airlines then imposed a travel ban on him, which was subsequently lifted following a directive from the government.

New guideline

Air India is now formulating a standard operating procedure to deal with unruly passengers.

“Even a hotel on the roadside has a board ‘Rights to Admission Reserved’. Air India, therefore, must have a procedure for handling of such unruly passengers,” a senior official said.

For imposing a penalty on passengers for delaying flights, the airline has, however, sought legal opinion, a spokesperson said.

Air India has further proposed training its airport and security staff on dealing with unruly passengers.

Also, airline employees will be required to report such incidents to the airport manager and the complaint will be forwarded to the chairman and managing director’s office.

Domestic airlines came together last month to impose a ban on Mr. Gaikwad after the assault on 60-year-old Air India duty manager, who urged the former to deboard the Pune-Delhi flight. Air India said the incident caused a delay of 90 minutes to its subsequent flight AI-156 (Delhi-Goa).

Earlier this month, TMC MP Dola Sen delayed Air India’s Delhi-Kolkata flight by 39 minutes as she protested the airline’s move to not allow her mother, who was on a wheelchair, to sit near the emergency exit. The Civil Aviation Ministry has also proposed that unruly passengers will soon be placed in a ‘no fly list’.