AI puts flyer who urinated on co-passenger on no-fly list for 30 days

NEW DELHI: A business class passenger seated in the second row of an Air India Airbus A320 flying from Delhi to Bangkok Wednesday urinated on a traveller in the front row, just before landing. Sources say this person “had alcohol like a significant number of travellers on flights between Delhi & the Thai capital but he was not sloshed.” Air India has barred him from flying for 30 days, pending action to be decided by an independent panel like the first peegate the airline had seen in Nov 2022.

Cabin crew “provided assistance” to the victim — who declined to file a complaint against the passenger after he apologised profusely — and shifted the latter to another seat on the erstwhile Vistara A320 which has 2 by 2 seating in business. In Nov 2022, a business class passenger on AI’s New York-Delhi flight had urinated on an elderly lady in the same cabin class.

“Air India confirms that an incident of unruly passenger behaviour was reported to the cabin crew operating flight AI-2336, from Delhi to Bangkok, on April 9, 2025. The crew followed all laid down procedures, and the matter has been reported to the authorities. In addition to warning the unruly passenger, our crew offered to assist an aggrieved passenger to take up a grievance with authorities in Bangkok, which was declined at the time,” an Air India spokesperson said.

“The standing independent committee will be convened to assess the incident and determine the action, if any, to be taken against the unruly passenger. AI continues to follow the standard operating procedures as laid out by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in such matters,” the spokesperson added.

AI-2336 had taken off from Delhi just after 2 am on Wednesday and landed in Bangkok a little over four hours later. “He urinated just before landing. The aircraft lavs were functional. The crew had offered to help the victim in filing a complaint with the authorities on arrival in Bangkok but he declined to do so. Now the internal panel will decide on the course of action to be taken against the person who urinated,” said sources.

In the earlier case on AI’s New York-Delhi flight, the person who had urinated was first barred from flying AI for 30 days and then put on the no-fly list for four months. Delhi Police had lodged a case against him under various sections and he was arrested in Bengaluru. He later lost his corporate job.

Since that case, AI has become stricter with its liquor service policy. It put emphasis on cabin crew training to help them better recognise and manage possible cases of intoxication. Before the Nov 2022 peegate case, full service Indian carriers that fly abroad like Air India, and earlier erstwhile Jet Airways, were far more liberal in liquor service than their foreign counterparts, especially western carriers. That changed after the earlier urination case.

On budget airlines, passengers have to buy liquor on board but even there crew was asked to generally limit sales to two drinks to avoid unruly behaviour by someone getting sloshed. LCC crew sell more only if a passenger seems to be in complete control of him/herself after two drinks on a case-to-case basis, said sources.

Flights between India (especially north India Delhi) and Thailand are particularly known for rowdy behaviour by passengers “who are too happy to be going on vacation on the way out or too sad after the same is over and returning home,” say crew members. For instance, low cost AI Express had seen one of its highest ever liquor sales on its inaugural Surat-Bangkok last Dec.

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