It’s for airlines to decide how much alcohol to serve: DGCA | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: What is the maximum number of alcoholic drinks that can be served in-flight to passengers to keep them sober to prevent incidents like the ones on two Air India flights in Nov-Dec 2022 where inebriated persons ended up allegedly urinating on co-passengers?
Responding to a petition by a 72-year-old woman who was urinated upon by a co-passenger on a New York-Delhi flight demanding urgent formulation of an SOP to deal with intoxicated passengers, DGCA in an affidavit before SC has said that Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) are in place to deal with ‘handling of unruly passengers”.

On the limit on alcoholic drinks to be served onboard, DGCA said it’s the discretion of every airline, as per Clause 4.3 of CAR, to formulate a policy so as to not leave passengers inebriated, which increase the risk of them commiting nuisance.

In her petition, the woman had requested SC to direct DGCA to frame a ‘zero tolerance’ SOP and rules to strictly deal with onboard unruly/disruptive behaviour and its implementation in letter and spirit by all airlines.
Alleging that the Air India crew faltered in handing the sensitive issue in a casual manner causing immense damage to her dignity, the woman said first they served excess hard drinks to the accused co-passenger and then forced her to enter into a settlement with him while failing in their duty to report the incident to the police. She said DGCA must consider “drunkenness” as unruly or disruptive behaviour on an aircraft.