Question : Incidents of Unruly Behaviour at Airports and in Flights

(a) whether the Government has taken any measures to improve customer services of various airlines including Air India at various airports in the country and if so, the details thereof;

(b) the action taken by the Government in view of recent reported incidents of misbehaviour of passengers and airlines staff at airports and in flights during the last six months;

(c) whether the Government has sought any report from concerned airlines in this regard and if so, the details thereof;

(d) whether the Government is aware of the increasing incidents of misbehaviour with the passengers by the staff and crew members of various airlines in the country including with MPs, National Players, National Personalities and General Public and if so, the details of such incidents reported during the last one year and action taken thereon;

(e) the steps taken by the Government to sensitise the airline staff/employees while dealing with the air passengers; and

(f) the rules/guidelines in place to tackle on-board disruptive and unruly behaviour by air passengers?

The Minister of State in the Ministry of CIVIL AVIATION
(Shri Jayant Sinha)

(a) DGCA has issued regulations in this regard, which provide for adequate training of persons waiting at airport who are engaged in passenger handling. In case of any violation, appropriate action is taken as per the provisions of the relevant CAR.
In addition, DGCA has issued passenger centric regulations on the following aspects:

i) Timely refund of tickets.

ii) Provision of compensation in case of denied boarding and flight cancellations.

iii) Provision of facilities in case of flight delays.

iv) Provision of facilities and assistance to passengers with reduced mobility.

v) Provision of passenger grievance redressal mechanism.

These regulations also provides platform for aggrieved passengers to complain to the statutory bodies set up under relevant applicable laws, if the airlines fail to fulfil their obligations.;

(b) to (d) Two incidents came to the notice of DGCA in the recent past. Brief details of the incidents along with the action taken by this office in this regard are given below:;

(i) Through social media, it came to the notice of DGCA that one of the passengers, who travelled by M/s Indigo flight 6E-487 was manhandled after deplaning in the operational area at IGI Airport, New Delhi on 15.10.2017. DGCA has constituted a two member committee to investigate the occurence.;

(ii) Matter of alleged harassment of Ms. Zaira Wasim by fellow passenger has come to the notice of DGCA, which occured on M/s Vistara flight No. UK-981 of 09.12.2017. A police complaint has been filed against the concerned person.;

(e) DGCA has issued regulations in this regard, which provides for adequate training of persons who are engaged in passenger handling. In case of any violation, appropriate action is taken as per the provisions of the relevant CAR.;

(f) DGCA has amended the Civil Aviation Requirements Section - 3, Series - M, Part VI titled Handling of unruly passengers. The amended CAR has been uploaded on DGCA website www.dgca.nic.in under URL http://dgca.nic.in/rules/car-ind.htm effective 08.09.2017.