Beijing: Unruly air passengers in China will be blacklisted under a new regulation that came into effect today, the government’s latest bid to curb growing incidents of air rage that gave a bad name to the Communist giant. The regulation issued by the China Air Transport Association lists 10 types of misconduct such as blocking and attacking check-in counters, security check passages and boarding gates.
They also include fighting inside the airport or on board the aircraft, attempts to force entry to the cockpit or to open the emergency exits without instruction and spreading false information about terrorist attacks. The association will record personal information of passengers concerned and share it with airline companies and the TravelSky Holding Co., a state-run service provider of aviation information that operates China’s national electronic travel distribution system. The record will be kept for one to two years, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
The association did not indicate the consequences of being blacklisted. Passengers who disagree with their treatment can appeal to the association, the report said.
In recent years, the media has reported numerous dramatic incidents involving irate passengers, ranging from blocking moving aircraft on an active runway to fistfights with airport employees — embarrassing image-conscious authorities. In one of the most recent episodes, a flight departing a city in southwestern China was canceled after irate passengers opened three emergency exits following a seven-hour delay.
Recently, a China Eastern passenger opened an emergency exit on an aircraft so that he could get off the plane faster. Chinese authorities have repeatedly asked its nationals to behave in public places, saying their tantrums had “severely damaged the overall image of Chinese people”.
According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), China is expected to overtake the United States as the world’s largest passenger market by 2029. In 2034, China will account for some 1.19 billion passengers, 758 million more than 2014 with an average annual growth rate of 5.2 per cent.
