Airlines can no longer deny boarding to any person with disability

Weeks after a specially abled child was not allowed to board an IndiGo flight, and days after aviation watchdog imposed a ₹5 lakh fine for the airline’s deficient handling of the passenger, the regulator issued new orders making it illegal for airlines to deny boarding to any person with a disability.

The move, a senior Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) official said, is to ensure that people with special needs are not misconstrued by airlines as behaving in an “unruly” manner — a classification that allows them to offload passengers who could be deemed as disrupting the flight’s service according to the civil aviation requirement (CAR) rules issued in 2017.

The DGCA notification amends CAR’s section 3, series M, part I, which now states: “ Airline shall not refuse carriage of any person on the basis of disability. However, in case, an airline perceives that the health of such a passenger may deteriorate in-flight, the said passenger will have to be examined by a doctor- who shall categorically state the medical condition and whether the passenger is fit to fly or not. After obtaining the medical opinion, the Airline shall take the appropriate call.”