In a huge relief for the airlines, the Supreme Court on Friday upheld the Bombay High Court’s order that allowed the carriers to operate without leaving the middle seat vacant. Since the airlines have been allowed to operate since May 25 at only a third of their capacity by the government and that too with fares capped, any move to not allow the middle seats to be sold would have hit the carriers adversely.
While rejecting the appeal by Mumbai-based pilot Deven Kanani, a vacation Bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishen Kaul upheld the HC order which had allowed the airline to book seats without keeping the middle seat vacant on account of passenger load and seat capacity. Asking the carriers to strictly comply with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s guidelines to prevent the spread of Covid-19 infection, the HC on June 15 had noted that adequate safety measures had been deployed for safety and health of passengers. The HC had taken note of the minutes of the meeting of the air transport facilitation committee and the high level committee of experts which had “considered and rejected the suggestion that seats must be kept vacant between passengers”.
