Soon, you will need Aadhaar or passport for flights in India

Asia

In the next two to three months, you will need to give either your passport or Aadhaar number to fly even within India.

Aviation ministry sources say that passenger identification has become mandatory because it is looking to put four levels of offences — graded in terms of seriousness — in its proposed nofly list. Each level will prescribe a different grounding period for passengers.

"To implement this, we need a foolproof way of identifying passengers. This could be done by asking people to give either Aadhaar or passport number at the time of booking flights. One of these two will be chosen.

The draft civil aviation requirement (CAR) will be put out for public discussion possibly next week itself, giving people 30 days to give their suggestions on the same. So by this June or July, we will have the entire thing in place," said a highly placed source.

The passenger identification blueprint is already in place as international bookings are done by giving passport details.
This system will just need to be replicated for domestic bookings.

While the government is finalising the level of offences and the ban each level should invite, airlines already have a system in place to see how unruly a passenger and what action should be taken against him or her.

Meanwhile, the aviation ministry is drawing flak for asking Air India and private airlines to withdraw the ban on Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad.

But sources in the ministry, in turn, questioned the alleged inaction of the law enforcing agency (Delhi police, in this case) as three complaints were filed against Gaikwad by AI and its staffer who was beaten up.

"Under existing aviation rules, there is no provision to ground a person indefinitely. Gaikwad could have gone to court and got the ban quashed. Even this action of grounding a person for two weeks was unprecedented. But civil aviation is not a law enforcement agency. Now, police need to act," said the source.

Union minister of state for civil aviation Jayant Sinha has been working on a no-fly list since late last year but the Gaikwad episode has clearly given a sense of urgency to it.

Source: timesofindia