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Passengers can now buy train tickets and book berth for children below 5 yrs: Railways

by economictimes.indiatimes.com Leave a Comment

Synopsis

​​The Railways clarified that there has been no change in the rule concerning booking of tickets for children travelling by train after news reports claimed that those in the age group of one to four years are now being charged adult fares.

On the demand of the passengers , Indian railways on Wednesday introduced an option to purchase tickets for the children who are below the age of 5 years. The fare to sought a berth/seat on voluntary basis for children will remain the same as for adult passengers, the Ministry of Railways clarified.

The statement also clarified, that if passengers don’t want a separate berth for their children under 5 years they can still travel in the train free of cost like before.

There have been some recent media reports that claim that Indian Railways has changed the rule with regards to booking of tickets for children travelling in the train. These reports claim that now children between the age of one to four years will have to get a ticket for travelling on the train.

The Railways clarified that these media reports are misleading. There has been no change in the rule concerning booking of tickets for children travelling by train after news reports claimed that those in the age group of one to four years are now being charged adult fares.

“On the demand of the passengers, an option has been given to them to buy a ticket and book a berth for their under 5-year-old child if they want. And if they don’t want a separate berth, then it is free, same like it used to be earlier,” the statement from Railways said.

A circular dated March 6, 2020 of the Ministry of Railways states that children under five years of age shall travel for free. However, it said that in that case, a separate berth or seat (in a chair car) shall not be provided.

( Originally published on Aug 17, 2022 )
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India airlines see a 7.6% sequential drop in domestic passengers in July, DGCA says

by economictimes.indiatimes.com Leave a Comment

Synopsis

​​However, this number is 7.6 percent lower than the number recorded last month. The number stood at 1.05 crore in June. Overall, 6.69 crore people travelled on domestic flights in the January-July period of 2022, reported PTI citing the DGCA’s monthly statement.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation ( DGCA ) stated on Thursday that over 97 lakh domestic passengers travelled by air in July this year.

However, this number is 7.6 percent lower than the number recorded last month. The number stood at 1.05 crore in June. Overall, 6.69 crore people travelled on domestic flights in the January-July period of 2022, reported PTI citing the DGCA’s monthly statement.

The rainy season is usually a lean period for the aviation sector in India .

IndiGo — India’s largest carrier — carried 57.11 lakh passengers in July, a 58.8 per cent share of the domestic market, it mentioned.

Vistara flew 10.13 lakh passengers and Air India flew 8.14 lakh passengers in July this year, according to the data shared by the DGCA.

Go First,

, AirAsia India and Alliance Air carried 7.95 lakh, 7.76 lakh, 4.42 lakh, 1.12 lakh passengers, respectively, in July, the data showed.

The occupancy rate or load factor for SpiceJet was 84.7 per cent in July, the DGCA noted.

The occupancy rate of Vistara, IndiGo, Go First, AirAsia India and Air India was 84.3 per cent, 77.7 per cent, 76.5 per cent, 75.2 per cent and 71.1 per cent, respectively, in July, it added.

During the last two years, the aviation sector has been significantly impacted due to travel restrictions imposed in India and other countries in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The DGCA data mentioned that in July this year, AirAsia India had the best on-time performance of 95.5 per cent at four metro airports — Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai .

Vistara and Go First were at the second and third positions at these four airports in July with 89 per cent and 84.1 per cent on-time performance respectively, the DGCA said.

(With inputs from PTI)

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I thought I was going to die when a passenger tried to open the door on our TUI flight and screamed ‘See you in heaven’

by www.thesun.co.uk Leave a Comment

A TERRIFIED mum said she thought she was going to die when a passenger tried to open the plane door MID-FLIGHT screaming he would “See them all in heaven”.

Mel Brown feared for her family’s life when the disruptive man became “highly aggressive and threatening” on her TUI flight home from holiday .

The mum-of-two was flying to Manchester yesterday evening after spending her summer getaway in Paphos, Cyprus , when she claimed all hell suddenly broke loose.

Mel told how a male passenger, who appeared drunk, became distressed and acted out, even trying to open the emergency doors on the plane .

She said he started praying loudly on the floor and demanded other petrified passengers do the same.

Then chaos reportedly erupted as panicking passengers ran to the back of the plane in fear, grabbing their children, scrambling over seats and screaming “Help, we’re going to die”.

In those dramatic moments, 32-year-old Mel thought her whole family was in danger.

Luckily, brave passengers on the plane, including two off-duty police officers, managed to restrain the raving troublemaker in a fierce tussle.

The pilot was forced to make a “terrifying” emergency landing , diverting to Zagreb, Croatia .

It was there the man was bundled off the plane and met by local police .

TUI confirmed that due to a “very disruptive” passenger, the flight was “forced to divert” so that he could be “offloaded” from the aircraft.

Mel from Bolton, Greater Manchester , said: “I honestly thought I was going to die and that I’d never see my family or children again.

“And I’m not the only person that thought it.

“It was awful, there were so many women screaming and shouting for help and screaming, ‘Oh my God, my kids’. All the kids were crying and screaming on the plane.

“It was terrifying. I think I’ve done all my crying now, I can’t cry any more.”

Other customers shared similar experiences on social media , with one lady named Kirsty saying the man pointed at her and her children and told them to “pray”.

Meanwhile, some tweeted that they were stranded after a passenger “posed a threat” to others on board.

Mel remembered how she was suspicious of the violent passenger from his bizarre behaviour in the terminal.

She said: “When we were queuing to get on the plane and a couple of passengers were talking about a passenger queuing up who was quite rowdy and acting very strangely.

I honestly thought I was going to die and that I’d never see my family or children again

Mel Brown

“We all got on the plane and he was acting quite strange and I was already scared before this [incident] had happened.

“We took off and two-and-a-half hours into the flight he kept getting out of his seat constantly, walking up and down the aisles and disappearing into the toilet.

“He was being disruptive on the plane and making people quite agitated and scared.

“My daughter was getting really worked up and upset because we could tell he was intoxicated, definitely as he was swaying and stuff like that.

“An air stewardess came to us and said ‘We’re having difficulty with a passenger on the plane, he’s making threats’.

“That was it then, everyone started getting really upset and panicked.”

Mel claimed he was becoming “really aggressive” to the stewardesses and would only speak to one directly.

Melissa said: “And then all of a sudden he just jumped up in the middle of the plane near the emergency exit and making hand signals to everybody, praying really loudly in a different language.

Everyone started running to the back of the plane, screaming, grabbing their kids and jumping over seats while he was still praying on the floor

Mel Brown

“In English he was saying stuff like, ‘Everybody needs to start praying, I’ll see you all in heaven’.

“He was trying the emergency exit doors to try and get out the plane and everybody started screaming and shouting, ‘Help, we’re going to die’.

“It was like he wanted to kill us all, it was absolutely terrifying.

“Everyone started running to the back of the plane, screaming, grabbing their kids and jumping over seats while he was still praying on the floor.

“The next minute a man jumped up and punched him in the back of the head and all the men ran to him and restrained him and there was two off duty police officers on the plane and they ran up and basically barricaded him into a seat until we landed.

“And the pilot did a really fast descend to a Croatian airport. We were literally falling out of the sky, it was really traumatic.”

Melissa claimed she was eventually taken to a hotel in Zagreb.

She was originally due to fly home on Monday but the flight was rescheduled to yesterday – before the diversion drama.

TUI apologised for the delay and diversion due to the “disruptive” passenger and said they wanted to reassure customers that such instances are “extremely rare”.

A TUI spokesperson said: “We’re very sorry to all customers impacted by the delay to TOM2731 and subsequent diversion due to a disruptive passenger.

We take a zero-tolerance approach to disruptive behaviour on our flights

TUI spokesperson

“Unfortunately due to on-going disruption with the aviation ecosystem, the original flight was delayed overnight as crew had reached their regulated hours.

“Our TUI reps supported customers throughout and the airport and the flight departed on Monday 15th August, in the evening.

“The health and safety of our customers and crew is always our highest priority and due to a disruptive passenger the flight was forced to divert to Zagreb, Croatia.

“The passenger was offloaded, was met by police will not travel with TUI when the flight departs later today. We take a zero-tolerance approach to disruptive behaviour on our flights.

“We understand how frustrating this additional delay will be for our customers and apologise for the on-going delay they now face.

“We have a TUI team supporting customers in Croatia, we have kept them updated with regular communication, have sourced accommodation and provided meals and refreshments.

“We thank customers for their understanding and patience and would like to reassure customers that instances like this are extremely rare.”

Ryanair passengers performed ‘citizen’s arrest’ on man who ‘refused to stop drinking’ on flight from Luton

by www.thesun.co.uk Leave a Comment

SHOCKED holidaymakers witnessed the moment a rowdy passenger was restrained with a seatbelt on a Ryanair flight – reportedly because he refused to stop drinking.

The apparently drunk man reportedly injured a passenger after a dispute with cabin crew escalated mid- flight .

A heated row broke out on board a plane headed to Lithuania from London Luton Airport on Saturday.

Police reportedly boarded the plane when it had landed at its destination to arrest the unidentified man – but it is the other holidaymakers on the flight who have been praised for their bravery.

Clips posted on TikTok captured onlookers restraining the violent passenger with a seatbelt as he lashes out.

The disruption apparently began because the male passenger had been drinking a bottle of alcohol he’d bought at Duty Free in the aiport before boarding, according to witnesses.

When asked to stop by Ryanair staff halfway through the flight, he allegedly refused to cooperate.

Two TikToks – which have since been removed – showed the argument growing into a physical fight as the troublemaker became aggressive.

It was difficult to hear what is being said in the footage of the initial row, although at one point the man appeared to stumble as if he is drunk.

He tried to put a hand on the shoulder of a cabin crew member who pushed his arm away as they talk.

In another clip showing the restraint itself, the man was now fuming.

He waved his fingers shouting, “I don’t f****** care who the f*** you are” and “Don’t touch me”.

A crowd of passengers gathered around his seat in an effort to calm him down.

He struck out at anyone who attempted to restrain him but was eventually held down by other passengers on the plane.

A baby cried in the background.

Olivia Skalska, one of the cabin crew on board the flight, said: “He had his own alcohol and we didn’t notice it until half way through the flight.

“He refused to put it away and started arguing and getting rude to the cabin crew when we told him it’s not allowed.

“Then he started arguing with other passengers and got really aggressive.

“I was really scared so I tried to stay away from him, so I really didn’t get involved in the fight, but he punched his own dad and injured a passenger.”

She added that Ryanair staff do not have any handcuffs on board the plane to deal with situations like this.

A spokesperson for the airline said: “The crew of this flight from Luton to Kaunas requested police assistance upon arrival after a passengers became disruptive in-flight.

“The aircraft landed normally and police removed and detained this individual passenger at Kaunas. This is now a matter for local police.”

The passenger who posted the TikToks layered the video of the fight with the audio “Not all heroes wear capes” and it rapidly climbed to 215.6K views, 3285 likes and nearly 300 comments.

A couple of days later, she then posted the footage of the argument escalating to give some more context.

She commented: “Long story short, drank too much, got so aggressive, tried to ‘leave’ the plane mid air.

“He was left alone on three separate occasions but kept getting up and threatening people.”

Other TikTok users jumped to praise the passengers who helped diffuse the situation.

One wrote: “Glad to see some strong peeps handle the situation. I’d be rocking at the back of the plane at that point breathing into a bag”.

Another added: “I would be so scared! I travel from Luton with just me and the baby a lot and I don’t like planes..that would add to my stress!”

Yet some viewers found the whole sequence of events hilarious.

One joked, ” Jeremy Kyle Airways”, while another said, “It’s [because] he’s in Luton”.

A third commented sarcastically, “He was worried about the Ryanair landing”, and someone else wrote, “no cheese toasties left!”

The dramatic clips come just a couple of days after a woman stripped and ran through a Jet2 plane screaming “Allahu Akbar” before being taken out by a hero dad and arrested.

Phillip O’Brien, 35, sprung into action after the passenger – in a bra and cap – sparked mayhem claiming there were explosives onboard.

Opinion: At Denver International Airport, passenger needs are rarely considered a priority

by www.denverpost.com Leave a Comment

As a frequent business and leisure traveler, I spend a lot of time at Denver International Airport, and I talk to a lot of travelers there from Colorado and elsewhere. As a result, it’s become clear that the airport isn’t being run primarily for the benefit of the passengers who rely on it to connect them to the world.

Setting aside the Great Hall Project fiasco , the recent parking scandal , and the painful parking price hikes , passengers still have to walk around broken escalators and moving sidewalks to get to their gates.

Then there’s this year’s reconfigured security screening that placed all of the PreCheck lines at the north end of the terminal in the name of efficiency (although there are still reports of TSA lines extending out the doors). This change forced frequent travelers looking for PreCheck lines to walk as far as possible from the RTD’s A-Line train, dragging their luggage across the entire “Great Hall” in a futile effort to save time.

But what few people know is that the expansion underneath the Westin hotel was actually built to accommodate additional security screening stations on Level 4, which would conveniently lead RTD passengers directly to the train to the concourses. That was a possibility until it was announced last December that a new “ Center of Excellence and Equity in Aviation ” would be built there instead.

Thankfully, a single PreCheck and Clear lane was recently reopened on the south side. But to make it worse, all north security checkpoints now shut down at 8 p.m., along with all PreCheck and Clear lanes in the entire airport. And you’ll often find yourself crammed into an overloaded train to reach your gate, because someone thought it was a good idea to run these less frequently during the evenings.

DIA is now the worlds’ third busiest airport, but it chooses to operate with a skeleton crew each night, inconveniencing thousands of passengers on over 150 flights that are scheduled to arrive or depart after 9 p.m. (and far more when there are delays). And when the Great Hall project is finally completed, the airport plans to relocate all security lanes to the north side of the sixth floor, even further from the train.

And while it’s fantastic that the airport is adding many new gates, I’m hoping that these will be more functional than the botched expansion of the west side of Concourse C. It was constructed with narrow hallways that are so clogged with vendors that passengers must squeeze through passageways that are only a few feet wide. And don’t bother wandering around this extension looking for the men’s bathroom, as nobody thought to build one there to compliment the women’s room.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. A men’s room could be added to Concourse C west for a fraction of the cost of other projects. Vendors obstructing the hallway can be relocated to allow passengers to reach their gates unimpeded. And the airport could run a full complement of trains throughout the evening while asking TSA PreCheck and Clear personnel not to retire early every night.

The Great Hall Project should include the planned security station below the hotel, or at least a token security lane on the south side of the terminal, if only just for passengers arriving by train. Catching up on the escalator and moving sidewalk maintenance is a must, and adding a children’s play area or two would be an inexpensive addition.

Over the last three years, I’ve reached out to the airport to express these concerns, and I have even met with executives who seemed to understand these problems. But billions are still being spent on construction projects that have negatively impacted passengers, especially those arriving by train. And while the airport is always quick to raise parking prices, its leadership has been largely unwilling to take some of these simple steps to make traveler’s journeys easier.

The airport does have many key stakeholders, including airlines, vendors, staff and others. But its actions indicate that passenger needs are rarely considered a priority.

I was heartened by the airport’s announcement of a Community Advisory Committee last November. But call me skeptical when it took them five months to even announce who would be on the board, without bothering to notify others who took the time to apply.

As Phil Washington, the airport’s current CEO, is departing to head up the FAA, now is the time for the mayor and the city council to look for new airport leadership that will start prioritizing the needs of its passengers.

Jason Steele is a licensed commercial pilot as well as a freelance travel and personal finance journalist based in Denver.

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