Aditya Narayan misbehaves with airline staff, apologises: IndiGo

Mumbai/Raipur, Oct 2 (IANS) Budget passenger carrier IndiGo on Monday said actor-singer Aditya Narayan misbehaved with its staff at Raipur airport but later apologised.

The incident occurred on Sunday, when Narayan, travelling on Raipur-Mumbai IndiGo flight 6E-258, used "unparliamentary language" with a female staff member of the airline.

IndiGo came out with its version after a video emerged showing Narayan engaged in an argument with its staff members at Raipur airport.

The verbal altercation was triggered after Narayan was asked to pay for carrying excess baggage on-board.

The actor-singer was travelling with a group and was allegedly carrying excess baggage of 40 kg -- well above the free prescribed limit of 15 kg.

According to the airline, Narayan was asked to pay Rs 13,000 for the excess baggage, which he refused and said that he will not pay more than Rs 10,000.

"He refused to pay... and also used unparliamentary language with a female staff member," Ajay Jasra, Director Corporate Communications, IndiGo Airlines, told IANS in New Delhi.

"Narayan was informed that if he continues to misbehave then he will not be allowed to travel. Later, passenger Narayan apologised to the ground staff and thereafter was given his boarding card."

However, Sunday's alleged incident involving the actor-singer does not comes under the purview of the current mechanism to deal with unruly passengers, as it occurred at the airport premises and not on-board the aircraft.

Currently, on-board unruly behaviour has been divided into three categories: Level 1 -- unruly behaviour (verbal); Level 2 -- unruly behaviour (physical); and Level 3 -- life-threatening behaviour.

The present rules to deal with such behaviour mandate different quantum of ban defined against each level: Level 1 -- up to 3 months, Level 2 -- up to 6 months; and Level 3 -- minimum period of 2 years or more without limit.