Airport becoming photography hotspots and guidelines to follow

Airport photography has become mainstream in today’s world, mainly because of the paparazzi. Most of the time, people attribute airport photographers to paparazzi, but airport photography involves many more attributes and dimensions as opposed to just pap- photography alone. Especially in India, it is a very misunderstood hobby.

Especially with digital media becoming so popular and hugely followed profession in India and abroad, many influencers often find themselves in positions where misinformed officials and fellow travelers interrupt them while they are making content (i.e. shooting videos and clicking photos for their social media). It is very important that we as civilians are aware of the rights that we have, to prevent any misinformation and unnecessary suffering that follows after such encounters.

Guidelines to follow:

·????????Photography is allowed in the terminal buildings of civilian airports and (the civil conclaves of defense airports like Pune, Goa, Guwahati, and so on.

·????????Photography from an aircraft or on-board a scheduled flight, while on the ground or in the air is permitted to passengers only, and is limited to civil airports only. Photography at defense airports from an aircraft is strictly prohibited by DGCA.

·????????Photography near airport premises is a little tricky. If a person clicks a picture of the airplane flying in the sky, then it is permitted, but Rule 13 prevents photography at airports.

·????????Clicking photos at defense airports(shared and individual) is inviting trouble and should be avoided at all costs.

·????????In a circular dated 13/09/20, the DGCA clarified that a passenger onboard a plane may indulge in video photography during take-off and landing, but discourages carrying any equipment that could compromise air safety, of both- the aircraft and passengers onboard. This came in response to an event that took place a few days before the circular was issued, where several members of the press crowded the aisles and refused to co-operate with the crew.

These are some general guidelines to be followed and do not include separate rules issued by authorities of specific airports. For instance, the authorities of the Hyderabad airport, who operate under the banner of GHIAL, have one their rules which state that -“Photography/Videography/Cinematography for commercial use, public exhibition, publication, or display, or to film any motion picture, television program or commercial advertisement on or at the Airport property shall require payment of the prescribed charges to GHIAL as applicable and published in schedule A annexed to this document.”

This is just one of the many rules that have been issued by them. Also, these rules change periodically, based on specific cases or due to anecdotal evidence where the existing rules proved detrimental to the concerned parties. The rules are often available in inflight magazines and thus, can be read and followed accordingly.

Recently, there has been a lot of talk about photography/videography-based incidents on airplanes and in airports, which is ultimately leading to laws becoming more regularized and implemented more rigorously, considering this was a hugely neglected topic earlier.