The U.K. is developing a coordinated airline passenger blacklist where being banned from one airline would allow other airlines to impose similar bans.
That’s a frightening prospect – it turns a private company’s decision not to do business with a customer (for potentially uneven reasons) into a limitation on rights generally. And it’s not even likely to reduce real bad onboard behavior, which is often a function of substance abuse or mental breaks where calculation of potential risks aren’t forefront.
David asks – if not this, then what’s the solution to bad passenger behavior?
I agree that what is being discussed in the UK is a slippery slope and could (likely?) lead to uneven enforcement outcomes.
The discussion here in the UK is that there is a large increase in the number of incidents on planes since the end of the pandemic. My question is: If the statistics are correct and what is being proposed is not a good solution, what then can be done to reduce the numbers?
I think everyone can agree that while zero is not likely achievable, the current trends are equally becoming unacceptable warranting something to be done. I have heard banning alcohol at airports and on flights being proposed, but that seems to be punishing a lot of responsible people for the actions of a handful and the polar opposite of this proposed solution.
Gary, assuming the statistics are real that there is an increase, what would you propose be implemented to push these incidents back below pre-pandemic levels?
I think it’s important to keep the actual scale of any problem in context. The ‘numbers’ may be up but incidents are still relatively rare.
Reporting of incidents is up which is different than incidents being up (or at least, up as much as numbers suggest). The spike in incidents during Covid, related to masking, led to a hyper-vigilence and to a lot more reporting of incidents. That elevated level of reporting the incidents that occur has persisted.
- For the U.K., there were ‘over 1,000’ reported incidents in 2024 (3.4 per million passengers) but up from 390 in 2019 (1.3 per million).
- For the U.S., there were 1,623 reported incidents in 2025 (1.8 per million) versus 1,161 in 2019 (1.25 per million).
To the extent that incidents remain elevated, one factor is airline cost-cutting that reduces airport staffing. In the U.S. we’ve seen a greater move post-pandemic to boarding flights with single gate agent. It’s difficult to managing boarding, customer service issues, policing carry-on bags and getting a flight out on time while also still noticing whether passengers are behaving erratically or are under the influence of substances. So more of those passengers get on the plane.
European low cost carriers were already lightly staffed at airports. The trend to more automation and fewer staff has continued. And apps don’t have breathalyzers.
Meanwhile, banning alcohol isn’t just ‘punishing the innocent’ – alcohol was off planes in the U.S. for the most part for a long stretch of Covid and the incidents were worse as a result as people brought their own. Ryanair wants to ban alcohol in airports and make it available for sale only on… their planes.
United Airlines did a great job during Covid of managing incidents. In contrast, American tended to have more escalations, they didn’t give their flight attendants guidance other than ‘here are the rules’.
- United had just done de-escalation training for all of their flight attendants after the David Dao passenger beating.
- So instead of confrontations in the cabin with rule violators, flight attendants there would tend to ask the passenger to put their bask on and those who refused would get written up and banned from United (for the period of mask enforcement). There wouldn’t be a flashpoint in the cabin.
Any move to actually reduce onboard incidents involves (1) better training of cabin crew, a la United, along with (2) return to a staffing regime that allows gate agents to notice passengers who shouldn’t be allowed to board. If it’s worth the investment to address cabin incidents, given how rare they are overall, then these are the better strategies.
Oh… so Gary IS serious about fixin’ this… but, dear thot leader, if this does get resolved, there’d be far less rage-bait for the site… I’m conflicted… bah!
These spoiled brats Need to be banned from all airlines. Problem solved.
@Alan — Woah! So easy! Why didn’t anyone else think of that/do that… (oh…)
@Alan. Sometimes it’s not the passenger- it’s a flight attendant. Who do you ban then?
Simple. If law enforcement needs to get involved a life time ban of flying.
@George Romey — You remind me of someone… “All of you 7 years dungeon, no trials…”
Unruly behavior is still relatively rare – I have averaged 100 flights annually for the past 7 or 8 years and have NEVER witnessed any behavior that would need to be reported. I really detest punishing the large majority for a small minority. Screening passengers at check in may help reduce the few to fewer but there will always be passengers who will behave irresponsibly (as least in the eyes of the majority) when having a “really bad day.” Perhaps a small postcard size notice of unacceptable behavior that all passengers have to sign when checking in may reduce the few incidents – but if someone is going to be offended over something or someone and decides to act in an unruly manner, very little can be done to prevent this. Banning a person for a period of time (one year:?) , but NOT forever, may be a temporary fix but not a complete panacea. Of course, any repeat offender could be banned for a longer period of time.
I think that while @Gary has a point about more training, having serious penalties for passengers acting outrageously is a splendid idea. In fact, we should adopt the idea here.
Here’s a great analogy: Why is it that people in say, Singapore don’t try to carry guns onto planes? Because they know that the penalties are severe. In the USA the penalties are laughable so lots of people try to fly while packing.
Make the penalties for doing stupid things onerous and most people won’t try. FAFO.
Airlines need to post clear Passenger Code of Conduct rules.
1. DRESS appropriately for the flight.
2. BEHAVE yourself and nobody gets kicked off or hurt.
3. PENALTIES for violating either of these comes with consequences, like banning travel.
4. INCENTIVES for entire plane if the flight goes off without a hitch. (yes, they are children)
@Gary: Misread of the UK situation. It is not something as nebulous as ‘substance abuse’. It is working-class Brits going on vacation engaging in the British binge ritual of endless beer drinking right before departure. They get inebreated, start chanting “1990 is a wanker”, and pose a serious risk of hand-to-hand violence wherever they are in the next five hours. On a plane the consequences are potentially deadly. A ban is an excellent idea, given a correct phrasing of the problem. It should be finite on a first offesnse (e.g. five years).
@L3 — Oooh! That much attention (even negative) might go to my head…
@1990 -:) You’re a bro’!
@L3 — *blushing* (umm, any word on when those Blacklane and Blade redemptions for BILT Cash will go live? Really hoping to actually use those before January 2027…)
The person who stood up and threatened to destroy my flight looked stone cold sober, perfectly harmless and compliant. I felt something was off the moment I saw the guy, and apparently so did another passenger who confided to me after the ordeal. So if some kind of pre board behavioral screening goes on, staff need to listen to their gut as well.
Blade, as I understand it, is available now, but at a poorer price than originally envisaged. Nothing on Blacklane to my knowledge.
A Google on “bilt blade redemptions” gives an AI description of Blade.
Best.
@L3 – that is not correct:
This is a good start as Rift Raft comes in ALL. So why not band All of them from All flights and airlines.
@Gary Leff — Blade and Blacklane redemptions are literally the only thing that’ll prevent me from losing a lot of BILT Cash to expiration… unless I prepay all my rent for 2027… bah!
@L3 — Work your magic! Get Ankur to open those up! Not ‘Coming Soon’ enough! 😉
Banning customers when you’re basically a regulated utility that benefits from government protections from competition is wrong, and colluding to ban customers is a grotesque abuse of power, inviting more FA power trips, and is most certainly illegal in this country. The solution is prosecuting actual crime. Assault on a flight is a federal offense, and should result in a few years in pound me in the ass prison. It would only take a few cases in the news for people to get the message. In any case, as you said this is a very rare occurrence that most of us have never seen in person, so it’s really not an important issue of the day except here.
In fairness, while I support lifetime bans for truly bad or criminal behavior onboard, I’ve also seen situations where flight attendants drunk on FA power and authority are overly aggressive—whether it’s a bad day or just poor judgment. In some cases, they can be just as confrontational as the disruptive passengers, escalating what should be minor issues into avoidable scenes, especially during boarding.
That’s where enforcement can become a bit of a slippery slope depending on the circumstances.
That said, if someone is clearly disruptive, uncooperative, combative, aggressive, or verbally abusive, there shouldn’t be any gray area—no hall pass. At a minimum, that should result in a permanent ban from that airline.