In a first, Air India proposes to make unruly passengers pay up to Rs 15 lakh

MUMBAI: Smarting from the goondaism that unruly passengers, especially politicians, have unleashed on its employees in the past few months, national carrier Air India has prepared a proposal to levy heavy fines on disruptive flyers, the first airline in the world to do so.
If it manages to fly past likely legal and practical hurdles and gets the proposal enforced, then any unruly passenger who holds up an Air India flight would have to pay “financial damages“ of between Rs 5-15 lakh to the government-run carrier.
Besides, if property is damaged in the incident, the airline will assess the damage and claim it from the unruly passenger. For now, Air India has only chalked out a rudimentary list of procedures to handle unruly passengers.
“The Air India chairman has okayed the suggestions. The proposal has now been sent for legal opinion,“ said an airline source. That is where it could fly into bad weather.
Sudhakara Reddy of consumer rights body, Air Passengers Association of India said: “The civil aviation ministry and the DGCA should formulate the guidelines if a fine has to be levied. If left to airlines, it might end up in a legal mess.“ Advocate Ashok Shetty, who has represented AI unions in the Supreme Court, said no Indian carrier is empowered to impose such fines.“The DGCA has no provision for this. An airline can file a police case under IPC. Even if the accused is convicted and even if the airline appeals for a penalty, would the court agree to such a heavy levy?“ asked Shetty.
Currently, no airline in the world is known to levy a fine for disruptive behaviour. Most civil aviation regulators, including India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation, allow airlines to physically restrain the passenger, offload him/her, file a criminal police case against them or ban the flyer from their flights.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), aviation regulator in the US, has a provision in its Reauthorization Bill (April 16, 2000) under which the FAA, not the airline, can propose a fine up to $25,000 per violation for unruly passengers. But FAA has used it sparingly.
According to media reports, of the 750 unruly pas senger cases reported to FAA by airlines between 2009 and 2013, the FAA levied a fine in only 126 cases. The rest were given warning letters. Even when FAA did levy a fine, 83 out of the 126 passengers managed to negotiate and reduce the quantum of their fine citing reasons like financial problems, mental illness etc. Many paid only 50 % of the amount.