After Air India, IndiGo airlines has cancelled Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad’s ticket to Mumbai. The Air India also barred the MP from Osmanabad (Maharashtra) from its flights and even cancelled his return ticket to Pune, fearing a backlash by its employees.
The Sena MP was booked on an IndiGo’s fight on Friday at 5:50 pm from Delhi to Pune. “The airline has cancelled the booking and is refunding the entire amount,” a source said.
The decision comes after state carrier Air India along with four private airlines banned Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad from flying on their aircraft after he assaulted an Air India staffer. Taking a strong view, the domestic airlines’ body Federation of India Airlines (FIA) has taken a “strong view” of the incident and accordingly taken a decision to bar the MP from flying on their network.
Tata-SIA joint venture carrier Vistara also joined the national carrier Air India and four private carriers’ decision to ban Gaikwad from flying. Disruptive and abusive behaviour by passengers is a serious issue and cannot be tolerated, both for safety and security reasons in a critical and sensitive industry such as aviation, as well for the safety and well-being of our staff and all other passengers, a Vistara spokesperson said.
Gaikwad, on Thursday, repeatedly thrashed a 60-year-old employee of Air India with a sandal over not being given a business class seat in an all-economy flight.
Air India got support from IndiGo, Spicejet and AirAsia for any move which bars unruly passengers from flying after Air India said it was mulling preparing a no-fly list for such people.
