Jan. 17—Indian airlines have one more challenge to cope with—unruly passengers. Incidents of passengers misbehaving on board an aircraft have spiked in the last two months, forcing airlines to take serious note of them to enforce full proof preventative measures, industry executives said.
"It is an alarming situation as if the volatility in demand for air travel and high oil prices were not enough. This is a point at boardroom discussions for almost all airlines to ensure that such incidents do not happen. Instances of unruly passengers on an aircraft get a lot of public attention and naturally affect the brands," a senior airline executive said seeking anonymity.
In the latest bizarre incident, a passenger travelling on an IndiGo Chennai-Tiruchirapalli flight on 10 December "accidentally" opened the emergency exit during the boarding process. Although he apologised for his action, it led to a delay as the crew had to again carry out airworthiness checks like reinstalling doors, and pressurization checks before allowing the aircraft to depart.
There have also been incidents involving violent passengers during flights, with reports of heated arguments between a passenger and cabin crew on IndiGo's Istanbul-New Delhi flight on 16 December, and a mid-air scuffle among passengers on a Bangkok-Kolkata flight of Thai Airways on 26 December.
Jet Airways chief executive designate Sanjiv Kapoor said a strategy has been formulated to handle passengers posing a risk to air safety. "We will put in place an announcement from the captain that will warn unruly passengers that they will be reported on landing, and will have to bear the cost of any delays, damage, or diversion that result from their behaviour," he added.
According to Kapoor, training on what can be termed as unruly behaviour and a standard operating procedure to handle unruly passengers needs to be reinforced. "Reinforcing the fact that we will back the crew in cases where they must take action on unruly passengers is important, so that they are not afraid to act and report."
According to India's aviation regulator, a disruptive passenger is one who fails to respect the rules of conduct at an airport or on aircraft, or follow instructions of the airport staff and crew members, and disturbs the good order and discipline at an airport or on board an aircraft.
Although unruly passengers represent only a small proportion of passengers, one aggressive passenger can jeopardise mid-air safety and impact personnel involved in flight operations, DGCA has stated.
Air India finds itself at the centre of two major incidents. While on 26 November, a passenger was reported to have urinated on a co-passenger on a New York-Delhi flight, another passenger had relieved himself on a vacant seat and blanket of a fellow passenger on a Paris-Delhi flight on 6 December.
A senior executive in the industry aware of Air India's plans said there will be a refresher training for crew and pilot on steps that they can take when faced with unusual circumstances. "So far there was little consequence but after the takeover (by the Tata Group), airline's staff including pilots will be told about consequence management. Once the merger agreement timeline to make any changes in HR policies get over by January end, the changes will happen soon after," he said.
At Air India's group airline Vistara, the crew training on handling disruptive passengers on board has been resumed since 7-8 months ago after a covid-induced gap. The training is specifically focused on presence of mind while resolving an incident when an aircraft is in the air and the airline is rigorously coming up with hypothetical situations derived from real incidents to ensure that the staff is better equipped to prevent disruption onboard, a person aware of the matter said.
All departments involved in running a flight operation need to rise to an occasion whenever an incident involving disruption on an aircraft takes place, a senior Tata Group executive said. Such incidents deserve a lot of empathy as well as delicate hold, he added.
While airlines put together a strict compliance programme on handling a disruptive passenger on board, some industry executives also point out that airlines often end up impacting the morale of the employees in such incidents due to customer-facing nature of the industry.
"Often times, there is a clear lack of support from airlines for their crew members and they are made the scapegoat at the drop of a hat. It is only later, that airlines state their support for their staff. This affects the morale of the employees, so (after this) you can expect some nervousness among crew members as well," an industry executive said.
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