Airports to give better facilities to senior citizens

Improve passenger experience at airports for senior citizens, first time flyers: DGCA to airlines - Times of India

Saurabh Sinha| TNN | Aug 6, 2019, 21:39 IST

NEW DELHI: After putting in place rules to punish unruly flyers, the government has now asked airlines and airport operators to ensure a good flying experience to passengers at airports — especially from the time they check-in to when they reach boarding gates. 

Accordingly, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) chief Arun Kumar has directed that airports, Indian carriers and foreign airlines operating to India must facilitate all passengers, especially senior citizens, expectant mothers, passengers with disability and first time travellers.

In an order issued last week, the regulator has warned the service providers "shall be liable of penal action as per the provisions of the Aircraft Act… and other relevant provisions of Indian Penal Code." If they fail to do so. "As all passengers are very important, valued and esteemed customers, any incident of misdemeanour, discourteous behaviour and harassment shall be dealt by the airline/airport operator on top priority basis and shall be reported to DGCA," says the order dated August 2. 

"Airline/airport operator shall ensure provision of automated buggies free of charge for all senior citizens, expectant mothers and disabled passengers in the terminal building to facilitate their access to boarding gates located beyond reasonable walking distance at all airports having annual aircraft movements of 50,000 or more. This facility may be extended to other needy passengers on demand basis free of charge," the rule says. 

"Airport operators shall provide small trolleys after security check for carriage of hand baggage up to the boarding gate. Airport operator shall adequately display information regarding availability of automated buggies and small trolleys in the terminal building a prominent locations including dos and don'ts regarding the same. This shall also be published on the website of the airport operator," it adds. 

Airlines and airport operators will need to display the contact details of their contact person for passenger grievance redressal. "Airlines/airport operators shall ensure that all the complaints are acknowledged immediately to the complainant and redressed at the earliest but not exceeding one month. In case of non-redressal of the matter within the stipulated time frame, the complainant has the option to lodge his complaint at 'AirSewa' web-portal/mobile application or take up the matter with any other statutory body set up under relevant applicable laws for resolution," Kumar's order adds. 

The order extends to the ground staff of airlines and airports who are engaged in passenger handling. They must be "extremely polite and courteous behaviour towards the travelling public. They shall render all assistance to facilitate their travel." The ground handling interacting with passengers staff will need to be given "periodic soft skill training for sensitisation, courtesy, behaviour and procedures for assisting the passengers."

"Although the primary objective of all stakeholders is to provide safe, efficient and reliable air transportation, the improvement in facilities and service standards is much required. There is a need to… create much more passenger friendly environment in aviation. With the expansion of airports, distances to check-in counters security hold area and boarding gate has increased manifolds requiring passengers lugging their carry-on baggage to cover long distances," the order itself explains why it is being issued.

Latest Comment

Regulator may also include in this advisory to passengers and public also that they also must exercise restraint and should not engage in unruly behaviour while dealing with airline staff. Most of ... Read More

Gopal B

Most of airlines and airports have outsourced passenger handling services. These outsourced "vendors have high attrition rate, resulting in inability in to provide quality services to passengers. Further, passengers remain most unattended after the check-in is completed till they arrive at the boarding point, which has caused increase in number of passenger complaints in the recent past."

"It is imperative to strengthen customer service skills at airport level especially in areas of courtesy and behaviour by all stakeholders to mitigate passenger inconvenience and make air travel a pleasant experience…. facilities for the travellers also need to be upgraded which have been necessitated with the increasing size and upgradation of airports," it says.

Dr P Vyasamoorthy
040-27846631 / 09490804278 / +918179386472

Why is it that I often get info about senior citizens only from Phillippines and not other countries?