3 airlines to bar 15 flyers from flying for not wearing masks

3 airlines to bar 15 flyers from flying for not wearing masks

Saurabh.Sinha@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:25.03.2021

Three Indian carrier have initiated the process of putting 15 domestic travellers on their no fly list for refusing to follow Covid norms on the aircraft. These passengers are likely to be barred from flying for three months, as per DGCA's unruly flyers norms. Of these 15 passengers, three were offloaded before take off for refusing to wear PPE gown as required on their middle seats or masks and the rest were handed over to police on arrival.

The action has been initiated by IndiGo against 9 of its passengers; Alliance Air against four passengers and AirAsia India against two passengers. These violations were reported between March 15 and 23.

“Airlines have informed us that all of the 15 have been deemed unruly and face bar on flying for upto three months. Those who have been handed over to police will additionally face action for intimidating or misbehaving with crew, apart from the flying ban,” said a senior official of the DGCA, which has adopted a strict “zero tolerance” policy for non-compliance of Covid protocol at airports and during flying.

Under unruly flyer norms, the airline on whose flight disruptive behaviour took place can put a person on no fly list for certain time as per the gravity of his or her safety violation after following a due process. Though the offender cannot fly that airline, other carriers are free to bar that unruly person from flying on them too for the same period.

So far whenever Indian airlines have taken such action against someone deemed unruly, they all have collectively barred the person for flying for some time.

The DGCA had directed airlines, airport managements and security agencies to have zero tolerance for Covid norm violations after Delhi High Court Justice C Hari Shankar observed an “alarming situation” while flying from Kolkata to Delhi on March 5. Taking suo motu cognisance, the court passed a landmark order on March 8 to agencies for ensuring strict compliance of Covid norms by flyers. Last October, IndiGo had barred nine electronic media personnel from flying for a fortnight after they violated Covid norms.