No Fly List: DGCA Banned 166 Passengers From Flying In India Since 2021

Since 2021, DGCA has banned a total of 166 flyers from flying to/from India for a specified course of time, considering their behaviour in earlier flights.

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Aviation watchdog, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has, since 2021, instituted a 'No Fly List', resulting in the prohibition of 166 passengers from boarding flights to/from India for a designated duration, the Parliament was told on Monday. Minister of State for Civil Aviation Gen VK Singh (retd) also told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply that the total number of complaints lodged by passengers were 4,786 in 2020, 5,321 in 2021, 5,525 in 2022, and 2,384 since January this year to date. He also said that the fleet size of aircraft endorsed on the Air Operator Certificate (AOC) of the scheduled operators in the country in 2014 was 395 whereas in 2023 it is 729.

As per the information received by the DGCA, the total fleet size of the major domestic airlines in the country is expected to be approximately 1,600 in the next seven years, the minister stated.

Singh said that as a part of monthly submission of traffic data by Scheduled Domestic Airlines, the percentage of flights cancelled in the year 2023 (till June) is 0.58 per cent.

The minister was responding to questions by BJP member Sushil Kumar Modi, who had asked about the number of passengers travelling by airlines in last 3 years till June 2023, the percentage of domestic flights that were cancelled this year and the number of complaints lodged against unruly behaviour of passengers, the action taken against such unruly passengers.

He had also asked about the total complaints lodged by passengers in the last three years, year- wise and the number of aircrafts with Indian Carriers in 2013-14 and 2022-23.

Also, as many as 338 cases of technical snags have been reported in aircraft of various airlines up to July this year with the maximum number of such cases (206) occurring in aircraft of no-frills carrier IndiGo.