Gaikwad 2.0: All domestic airlines ban Diwakar Reddy, Ashok Gajapathi Raju orders probe

A probe has been ordered into the Vizag airport incident involving the alleged ruckus created by a Telugu Desam Party MP after he was denied boarding by IndiGo for being late, even as all major domestic airlines imposed a flying ban on him citing “unruly behaviour”.

Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju, who also belongs to the same party, said on Friday he would get the entire incident “enquired into” and will ensure “lawful outcomes” follow. The MP, JC Diwakar Reddy, was scheduled to fly IndiGo’s flight 6E-608, which departs from Visakhapatnam at 8.10 AM, to Hyderabad. But he reached just 28 minutes before the scheduled departure, according to the airline.

As per norms laid out by the aviation regulator, airlines close check-in counters for all domestic fights 45 minutes prior to departure.

Reddy — who had allegedly vandalised the Air India office at Gannavaram airport in Vijayawada last year after he missed his flight — got into a verbal spat with the ground staff and threw a printer kept at the airline’s counter after he was informed that boarding for his flight had closed.

He was finally accommodated on the same flight, but all the major domestic carriers, including IndiGo, later banned him …read more