After Air India, Federation of Indian Airlines revokes flying ban on Gaikwad
Mumbai: Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) on Saturday revoked the flying ban imposed on Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad under the assurance that they will be accorded respect.
"The FIA member airlines are also restoring the flying privileges to Mr Gaikwad under the assurance that our assets and colleagues shall be accorded the respect that they deserve for the hard work that they put in every day," Ujwal Dey, Associate Director of FIA said in a statement.
The Civil Aviation Ministry had on Friday asked private airlines, which had barred Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad from flying after he assaulted an Air India employee on March 23 at the Delhi airport, to revoke the ban.
Air India lifted the ban on Friday after the government “advised Air India and other (private) airlines” to revoke the ban in view of “the apology tendered by Mr Gaikwad and the undertaking of good conduct given by him”.
In a communication to the Air India chief, the ministry had said, “In order to deal with unruly passengers in an effective manner in future, an amendment to the Civil Aviation Regulations is being drafted in consultation with this ministry for establishing a ‘National No Fly List’.
This is expected to be a comprehensive framework added to civil aviation regulations that will ban unruly passengers from subsequently flying on any airline in the interests of air-safety and aviation security.” Just hours before the ban was lifted, AI officials said Gaikwad had tried to book tickets early on Friday morning.
Air India had barred Gaikwad from flying with it on March 24.
Following suit, the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA) had also imposed a ban on him. Jet Airways, SpiceJet, GoAir and IndiGo are part of the grouping.
The Ministry had asked Air India as well as other airlines to lift the ban imposed on Gaikwad citing the "undertaking of good conduct" given by him.
When FIA had imposed a flying ban on Gaikwad, two non-member carriers – Vistara and AirAsia – had said they were with the industry on the issue.
