Cause trouble onboard? Airlines may impose instant flying ban for 30 days

New Delhi: India’s aviation regulator has proposed tighter rules to deal with unruly passengers, including allowing airlines to directly bar offenders from flying for up to 30 days without waiting for a committee’s decision.

In draft revisions to the Civil Aviation Requirement on handling disruptive passengers, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said a “No or Zero Tolerance Policy” has been adopted to safeguard aircraft, passengers, crew and property, and to maintain order on board.

Under the proposal, airlines will be required to frame and implement a Standard Operating Procedure for managing unruly passengers and for reporting such incidents to the regulator. The SOP must be circulated among all relevant stakeholders to ensure uniform handling of cases.

A key change allows airlines to impose an immediate flying ban of up to 30 days for certain violations without referring the case to an independent committee. The DGCA said this option would apply when a passenger is found to have committed specific disruptive acts during a flight.

These include smoking on board, consumption of alcohol during a domestic flight, misuse of an emergency exit, or unauthorised use of life-saving equipment such as life jackets. The regulator said the provision would help airlines respond swiftly in clear-cut cases.

For other situations, the existing mechanism will continue. Each airline is required to constitute an independent committee, which will include a representative from another carrier, to decide on longer bans. Pending a committee’s decision, an airline may continue to bar a passenger from flying for up to 45 days, a provision that remains unchanged in the proposed rules.

The length of a flying ban varies according to the severity of the offence. Level 1 offences, which cover unruly behaviour such as verbal harassment, physical gestures or disruptive intoxication, can attract a ban of up to three months. Level 2 offences involve physically abusive conduct including pushing, kicking, hitting, grabbing, inappropriate touching or sexual harassment, and may lead to a ban of up to six months.

More serious violations fall under Level 3 and Level 4. Level 3 includes life-threatening behaviour such as damage to aircraft operating systems or severe physical violence, while Level 4 relates to attempted or actual breach of the flight crew compartment. In such cases, the minimum flying ban can be two years or more, with no upper limit specified.

Separately, passengers can also be barred from flying on grounds of national security risk.

The DGCA has invited stakeholder comments on the proposed changes to the Civil Aviation Requirement, with submissions open until March 16.