CHENNAI: The Air Passengers Association of India, in consultation with legal experts, has initiated the exercise of drafting guidelines on legal rights for air passengers.

The final draft, which will be ready by April-end, will be forwarded to the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs for being made a piece of legislation.

association president D. Sudhakara Reddy told a press conference here on Wednesday that the increasing number of complaints received by the association from travellers highlighted the need for passengers to have certain legal rights to claim compensation for deficiencies. The draft guidelines were being formulated on the basis of European Union guidelines, which were implemented in February 2005.

Mr. Reddy said the association had been receiving good response from the travellers about the hardships they faced with the airlines, especially the low-cost operators. Passengers could log on to www.air-passenger.com to file their grievances.

Referring to the incident in which an Air Deccan ATR-72-500 series aircraft, which skidded off the runway in Bangalore, Mr. Reddy wanted a thorough safety audit of all airlines, including the low-cost ones, to be done. The audit should cover the procedures for employing foreign pilots and the cabin crew capability, since there was apprehension that the stipulations laid down by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) were not being followed. "Air passengers have the right to know about the Bangalore incident. The DGCA's investigation report has to be made public and suitable penalty initiated against the operator... " The incident brought to sharp focus how the cabin crew were not prepared to handle even minor injuries. Similar incidents involving Air Sahara, Indian and Air India flights had gone unnoticed.

There were instances of Spice Jet, another private airline, charging Rs.500 for the physically challenged travellers. "This is against ethical practices, and the APAI has received unsatisfactory response from the airline," Mr. Reddy said.

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