Airlines told to keep middle seats vacant or give fliers gowns

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Monday told commercial airlines to ensure middle seats are kept vacant on flights if the passenger load permits, or provide fliers seated on these seats with additional protective equipment such as wraparound gowns.

DGCA said the guidelines on air travel were tweaked based on the recommendations of an experts’ panel the civil aviation ministry constituted on May 26 to review and strengthen public health protocols.

“If the middle seat is occupied due to passenger load, then additional protective equipment like ‘wraparound gown’ (ministry of textiles approved standards) shall be provided to the individual occupying the intervening seat in addition to the three-layer face mask and face shield,” the civil aviation regulator has said in a statement.

The directive came a week after the Supreme Court (SC) allowed Air India to keep middle seats occupied till June 6 on its “Vande Bharat” flights for the repatriation of Indians stuck abroad because of the national lockdown.

To be sure, the matter in question was only related to international rescue flights.

Earlier this month, civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri said keeping the middle seats vacant has not been an option for any airline in the world.

“Airlines already operate on very thin margins and if you keep one-third of aircraft empty, many of them will choose not to fly. This might be counterproductive. We would need to take other precautions,” he had said.