IndiGo, Air India and Vistara have lifted the flying ban on JC Diwakar Reddy, MP of the Telugu Desam Party. Other airlines are also likely to lift the ban on the MP.
In June this year, IndiGo had put the MP on the no-fly list following his alleged unruly behaviour at Visakhapatnam airport. Other domestic airlines followed suit.
In a statement, IndiGo said that airline officials met Reddy at a lunch hosted by Union Minister YS Chaudhary. The meeting lasted three hours, after which a decision to lift the ban was announced.
“The issue is amicably resolved between the two and IndiGo has decided to lift the ban with immediate effect,” an IndiGo release said, adding that the MP would now withdraw his case against the airline.
Reddy was the second parliamentarian this year, after Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad to be barred from domestic flights. In March, Gaikwad was slapped with a ban for assaulting an Air India employee. The ban was finally lifted after two weeks after the MP wrote to Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapati Raju, apologising for the incident.
Meanwhile, the government is working on regulations to have a national no-fly list. In May this year, Civil Aviation Secretary RN Choubey had said that passengers could be banned from taking a flight for up to two years or more, indicating that such passengers might never be able to fly again.
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