No-fly list: Soon, unruly flyers could be grounded for up to 2 yrs

Draft rules, a first of kind in the world, have three levels with progressively higher sanctions

The government plans to empower domestic airlines to ban unruly passengers for up to two years in a move that comes about one-and-a half months after a Shiv Sena member of Parliament beat up an Air India staffer.

The civil aviation ministry on Friday released draft rules for a “national no-fly list” of rowdy passengers — the first of its kind in the world — which allow an airline to bar an individual from three months to a maximum of two years, depending on the nature of the offence. 

The ministry has categorised “disruptions” by flyers into three levels— level 1 is for disruptive behaviour like physical gestures; level 2 is for physically abusive behaviour like pushing, kicking, and sexual harassment; and level 3 for life-threatening behaviour and damage to aircraft operating systems. For offences under level 1, a passenger can be grounded for three months, while for level 2 and level 3 offences, he or she can be banned for six months and two years, respectively. 

The new rules will be open for public comments for a month, and will pass through stakeholders’ consultation before being finalised. 

“There is no other country in the world with a no-fly list based on safety. India is blazing a new trail in this regard,” said Jayant Sinha, minister of state for civil aviation.

But, what happens when a passenger feels that he has been wrongly barred from flying? To address this issue, the government has proposed to form two redress committees — at the airlines-level to be headed by a retired district judge, and at the national level with a retired high court judge as its head. “All such grievances will be addressed within 10 days,” Civil Aviation Secretary Rajiv Nayan Choubey said.

Choubey said international airlines, too, could use these guidelines if they wanted to. “Airlines can ban a passenger from flying immediately but that passenger won’t come on the national no-fly list immediately,” he said.

A senior airline executive said unruly passengers had become a safety and security issue, and the punishment should be harsher. “To be effective, punishment should be doubled for level 1 and level 2 offences, and for life-threatening activities there should be a lifetime ban,” the executive said.

A second airline executive said the government needed to smoothen the process for filing complaints. “A lot of incidents go unreported as the crew cannot come to airport police stations day after day for investigations. The process has to be streamlined,” he said.

A Vistara spokesperson said, “This is an important step in ensuring safety and well-being of air travellers and is also in the interest of safe and seamless flight operations.” 

Indigo also welcomed the guidelines but added it “will examine this to understand the larger implications”.

The global airline lobby group International Air Transport Association (IATA) urged India to ratify the Montreal Protocol 2014, which deals with the safety of flights and passengers. “Unruly passenger incidents affect airlines around the world on a daily basis, we urge India to ratify it to enhance deterrent against disruptive passenger incidents,” the IATA said.

In March, Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad assaulted a 60-year-old AI staffer for failing to provide a business class seat, which didn’t exist. Following the incident, flying restrictions had been imposed on Gaikwad and then were subsequently lifted after protests by Shiv Sena members and an undertaking by Gaikwad stating that such incidents would not recur. “Enactment and enforcement of this law should not be discriminatory. Nobody including lawmakers should be above this law,” said Mark Martin of Martin Consultancy, an aviation consultancy firm.