Wadia Group-owned no-frills carrier GoAir has now banned stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra from flying with the airline till further notice. This development comes hours after the government announced that it was urging other airlines to do the same. On cue, IndiGo Airlines, Air India and SpiceJet declared they had banned Kamra.
Budget airlines GoAir tweeted on Wednesday: "GoAir has suspended Kunal Kamra from flying with the airline till further notice."
It has been alleged that Kunal Kamra roasted a television news anchor while travelling on a Mumbai-Lucknow IndiGo flight with him. Hours after Kunal tweeted about the entire episode on the flight, IndiGo Airlines announced, "In light of the recent incident onboard 6E 5317 from Mumbai to Lucknow, we wish to inform that we are suspending Kunal Kamra from flying with IndiGo for a period of six months, as his conduct onboard was unacceptable behaviour."
"Hereby, we wish to advise our passengers to refrain from indulging in personal slander whilst onboard, as this can potentially compromise the safety of fellow passengers," the IndiGo tweeted.
Following IndiGo's announcement, Air India and SpiceJet also barred Karma from flying on any of its flights until further notice.
SpiceJet's post
"SpiceJet has decided to suspend Kunal Kamra from flying with the airline till further notice," the carrier said tagging the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Directorate General of Civil Aviation and Hardeep Singh Puri and IndiGo Airlines.
Reacting to the incident, Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri posted on Twitter, "Offensive behaviour designed to provoke & create disturbance inside an aircraft is absolutely unacceptable and endangers the safety of air travellers. We are left with no option but to advise other airlines to impose similar restrictions on the person concerned."
"We are left with no option but to advise other airlines to impose similar restrictions on the person concerned," the Civil Aviation Minister tweeted.
Kunal Kamra on flight bans
Kamra issues statement on Twitter
On his part, Kamra posted a statement on his Twitter handle which read: "Today I met Arnab Goswami in a flight to Lucknow, and politely asked him to have a conversation. At first, he pretended to be on a phone call. I waited for his so-called phone call to get over. Seatbelt signs were off at this time. I gave him a monologue about what I felt about his 'Journalism'. He refused to answer any questions, he called me 'mentally unstable'."
In another tweet, Kamra said: "Thank you Indigo a six-month suspension is honestly very kind of you... Modiji might be suspending Air India forever."
