The court of the chief commissioner for persons with disabilities (Divyangjan) has asked Tata SIA Airlines Ltd, operating as Vistara, to comply with the civil aviation requirements (CAR) issued by the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA), with regards to accommodation of persons with disabilities (PwD) passengers. This ruling was in favour of the complainant, RN Bhaskar, a senior journalist, who suffers from muscular dystrophy in 45% of his body.
On his Vistara flight from Hyderabad to Mumbai on 5 December 2022, Mr Bhaskar, on account of his disability, had requested a wheelchair and an aisle seat through his travel agent. The airline staff refused to register the request and only grudgingly gave him a wheelchair and a chair in row 28 after repeated follow-ups.
Usually, a PwD passenger is accommodated by the airline with a wheelchair upon request and a seat near the entry and exit gateways is also allocated. In Mr Bhaskar's experience, other domestic airlines have always complied with his request and given him a 'seat anywhere between rows 2 and 8'. It seemed strange to him that Vistara did not even have a booking facility on their website allowing such requests.
When his travel agent shared his Vistara flight ticket, the senior journalist was disappointed to see that the ticket made no mention of a special request for a wheelchair and even an aisle seat was not allocated to him. According to the travel agent, his request and a medical certificate confirming disability had been shared with Vistara at the time of booking. Still, the airline had refused to consider it.
So, Mr Bhaskar proceeded to write to the airline and attempted to make another request before his flight was due for departure. He was informed by the customer service representative that a wheelchair and an aisle seat would be provided to him when he reached the airport for check-in. Unsatisfied with the airline's assurance, Mr Bhaskar filed a complaint with Vistara, after which his request for a wheelchair was grudgingly accepted and he was given a seat in row 28.
A wheelchair assigned to a PwD passenger will usually only drop the passenger as far as the exit/entry gateways of the aircraft; further navigation into the plane, towards the allocated seat, has to be done on foot. Therefore, airlines usually assign aisle seats in the rows nearest to an aircraft's exit/entry gateways to minimise any inconvenience to passengers.
Regarding the seat that Vistara had assigned Mr Bhaskar, he wrote another email to the airline requesting a better seat, but the email went unanswered. However, three days after the flight, a customer service representative from Vistara called to explain that a seat in row 28 had been allocated to him, as it was closer to the washroom. On a short, one-hour flight, this seems to be an unnecessary and unrequested courtesy from the airline.
"The fact that Vistara does not offer (booking) facilities on its website (for PwD), issues tickets without providing essential facilities, and expects passengers to send it repeated emails making such requests convinces me that Vistara does not care for the disabled. It is more concerned about putting the disabled near toilets even when short flights do not warrant this, or when customers have not requested this facility," Mr Bhaskar wrote on his blog.
Eventually, on 27 February 2023, Mr Bhaskar wrote a detailed complaint to the office of the chief commissioner for persons with disabilities. The office took cognisance of his complaint and asked the DGCA and Vistara for an explanation.
Vistara took a whole two months to respond to Mr Bhaskar's earlier complaint sent by email and ended up apologising for the error and behaviour of their staff.
DGCA's response pointed out that to "safeguard the interest of persons with disability/reduced mobility without affecting the safety aspects of aircraft operation, DGCA, has issued CAR Series M, Part-l on 'carriage by air of persons with disability and/or persons with reduced mobility'."
On closer inspection of the established guidelines, the office of the chief commissioner for persons with disabilities stated that "As per para 4.1.13 of the CAR, the airlines (are required to) provide convenient seats that are designated as accessible for persons with disabilities with adequate leg space free of charge, which should remain blocked until close to the time of departure."
The CAR guidelines issued by DGCA are mandatory for all airlines which operate in India. "Providing accommodation to PwD passengers is not merely an ethical obligation but also legal necessity," the commissioner commented in his order.
12/06/2023 Moneylife
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