View: DGCA no-photo order hurts passengers the most

Indian aviation regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) tweeted an order on September 12, 2020. The order refers to Rule 13 of the Aircraft Rules 1937 wherein no person will take any photograph or permit a photograph to be taken at a government airport or from an aircraft in flight. The same order states that photography can be done with explicit permission from Director–General, a Joint Director General, a Deputy Director–General or the Director of Regulations and Information of the Civil Aviation Department.

Even with explicit permission, photography won’t be allowed when the aircraft is landing, taking off or on the ground at a defence aerodrome. On the regulator's website, a page is dedicated to photography where it is stated with an order dated  December 9, 2004, restrictions on photography at a government aerodrome shall not apply to the terminal building of civil aerodromes and civil enclaves of Defence Aerodromes.

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The same order also says that bonafide passengers are permitted to take photography from inside the aircraft while in flight and while landing, take‐off or on the ground at civil aerodromes. While the regulator can make new rules, amend existing ones or go back to older rules. One provision of the new order could mean a disadvantage for others!

As per the new order, any violation occurring on any scheduled passenger aircraft, then the schedule of the flight for that particular route shall be suspended for two weeks from the next day. The schedule will be restored when all necessary punitive action is taken by the airline against those responsible for the violation.

What does this mean?

If any passenger is found indulging in photography on a scheduled passenger aircraft during a scheduled flight and the airline cannot stop this, the particular flight on the sector will be suspended for two weeks. With over 80 percent market in India with low-cost carriers (LCCs), the average seats per flight are higher. With pre-COVID19 load factors of nearly 90 percent, this translates into 165 passengers per flight. A cancellation for 14 days would mean an impact for over 2,000 passengers!

While all of them are not booked 14 days in advance and there is a gradual curve up to last-minute bookings, the most impacted would be those travelling the very next day that would be left high and dry without alternative arrangements!

One also needs to understand that an airline operates a set of flights and removing just one from the network is not possible. This means that another flight will have to be cancelled to balance the number of flights with a potential disruption affecting over 4,000 passengers in a span of 14 days.

Photography is becoming popular

From aviation geeks and enthusiasts to first-time travellers, air travel in India has been breaking new records year on year until last year. With RCS-UDAN and the dream of Hawai Chappal in Hawai Jahaj, many first time fliers from the heartland took to the skies in the last couple of years and most have a story to tell with a photograph.

Airline handles have been tweeting pictures from inside the aircraft of celebrations like birthdays and anniversaries of its guests or encouraging people to tag the airline with various competitions.

These have helped brand both the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) – UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) and the airlines. With the new rules in place, all of this will have to be relooked.

 Tail note

There is no denying the fact that the regulator should penalize for any rules that are not adhered to by anyone who comes under the purview of the regulator, but the penalty should not be such that other passengers are impacted!

Domestic air traffic in India is limping back to normal after a restart on 25^th May, after a two-month hiatus. Passengers are already reeling under a lot of money being stuck in credit shell with the airlines. Flight cancellations are still regular with airlines opening flights for sale and not being able to fill them up leading to cancellations. With this backdrop, if a rule like this is enforced – it will be a huge loss of revenue for airlines and an unparalleled inconvenience for passengers.

The penalty should be restricted to the passenger who violated the rules and may only be extended to the airline who is made liable to enforce the rule. Anything beyond and it impacts all innocent passengers who are impacted and affected or even made to scramble for alternative arrangements for no fault of theirs!

Ameya Joshi runs the aviation analysis website Network Thoughts