Unruly passengers, beware! The Civil Aviation Ministry has announced a set of guidelines for a national ‘no-fly list’. The new rules will come into effect before the end of June.
Three categories of offences have been set in the draft rules.
The move comes in the wake of an alleged assault by Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad on an Air India staffer. While Union Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju had criticised Gaikwad’s actions, the temporary ban imposed on him by all private airlines was eventually lifted.
The no-fly list will be made public. NDTV quoted sources as saying that airlines may be allowed to ask for passengers to disclose their Aadhaar numbers for identification purposes. The Centre is likely to make using identification documents mandatory for booking domestic air tickets.
The ministry has confirmed that some form of ID will be needed at the time of booking the ticket, to ensure that the booker and the passenger match. However, the type of identification that will need to be submitted has not been specified yet.
Elaborating on the no-fly rules, a senior official told NDTV:
If some person misbehaves, it won’t be the airlines who will decide whether he/she gets on the no-fly list but the DGCA [Director General of Civil Airlines]. If someone is added to the no-fly list, it won’t be all over for them. To ensure fair play, the no-fly list will have a redressal mechanism. Those who feel they have been wrongly added can approach the appellate authority.
Passengers who have been sanctioned under the new draft rules will have the right to appeal judgement. According to the International Air Transport Association, there were 10,854 reported cases of unruly behaviour by passengers across airlines worldwide in in 2015.
(With inputs from ANI)
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