A lot of people went crazy on planes during the pandemic. The level of crazy incidents never returned to pre-pandemic levels. What do we think is going on here?
One decent way to track this:
FAA data on “unruly passenger reports” shows a much higher level of anti-social behavior relative to pre-COVID baseline. https://t.co/B5eOecgeSC pic.twitter.com/bepG1fAOzy
— Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp) December 6, 2024
Maybe the most striking thing is that inflight incidents are down 80% since 2021. In a way, much of the normalcy has returned to the skies. Three things caused this.
- They’re different passengers. In fall 2020, then-American Airlines CEO Doug Parker said that passengers during the pandemic were “somewhat different from our normal clientele.” (Then he backtracks a bit, “we love all our customers of course!”)
They weren’t business travelers. As Parker put it, they were “leisure customers traveling to leisure destinations.” Many of them were first-time flyers, taking advantage of very low fares. Put another way, I wrote at the time that everyone’s passengers were Spirit Airlines passengers then.
- Mask rules ended. Masks became a political flashpoint during the pandemic. The Biden administration took rules that the airlines put in place, and made them a federal mandate. (This exceeded the CDC’s statutory mandate, an interpretation bolstered by the Supreme Court, and eventually the mandate was struck down by a district court judge taking the administration off the hook from responsibility for extending it.
Unruly passenger incidents dropped by more than half immediately in the week following the end of the mask mandate.
A Florida woman was kicked off a Delta flight for allegedly refusing to wear a mask and spitting on other passengers. She told police they weren’t respecting her human rights. pic.twitter.com/9DDZoBa7up
— Sam Sweeney (@SweeneyABC) July 10, 2021
Fight on the Spirit Airlines fight from Atlanta to Newark pic.twitter.com/gBr9jwImjz
— ATL Uncensored (@ATLUncensored) July 23, 2021
- Alcohol returned to planes. This one is counterintuitive. You might think that when airlines stopped selling alcohol in coach during the pandemic, people would be less inebriated, and therefore better behaved. The opposite is true. Knowing there wouldn’t be alcohol on board, they pregamed at the airport, bought alcohol “to go,” and brought their own on the plane. Consumption wasn’t being monitored, and there were more drunk incidents.
But why are incidents still so elevated? We no longer have mask rules and travel is more than back to 2019 levels. I think that several things are going on but would love to hear your takes on this.
- Business travel is more spread out. There used to be clear business travel days, and managed business travelers know the drill. Now they’re a smaller percentage of travelers on any given flight.
- Pandemic-era leisure travelers have kept traveling. The pandemic-era deal seekers got hooked, and these passengers were more likely to have incidents. The ‘Spirit Airlines passenger types’ are still flying and flying everyone.
- Society has just gotten more weird and this was accelerated by the pandemic and by forces concomitant with it but not directly related to it. Whether it’s social media, atomism, or fluoride in the water, airlines are a microcosm of society since air travel is so democratized. Society has gotten weird, and that weirdness is escalated in the skies because people from different backgrounds and expectations get crammed together in close proximity in a metal tube hurtling through the skies at over 500 miles per hour. In a weird society, some people have extra weird days and the stress levels get amped up there so this all just comes out.
In some sense, we need to explain both the absolute level number of incidents and the change. It’s easy to explain why tensions amped up during the pandemic, such that there were so many incidents on board airlines even with fewer passengers – and also why that subsided significantly once masks came off and booze returned. The hard thing to grapple with is why incidents are still so elevated compared to 2019 and before.
The problem is the society in general. The current election and the party that keeps supporting chaos reflects this.
As a society we have normalized what once was called “being a jerk.”
We all have our individual justifications for being a jerk, of course. And if anyone feels offended it is because they are snowflakes, or Karen’s or libtards or magats or somewhere form of pejorative labeling that inherently casts them as inferior and a justifiable target for verbal and physical violence.
That and pre-drinking is still a thing.
And the 65+ tourist cohort — which tended to be experienced and self sufficient — was hit hard by Covid and hasn’t fully returned.
When people in charge can break the law and sew chaos, without consequence or reprimand for the most part, people assume free rein exercise of their “rights” includes doing whatever they want, without repercussions.
Trk1 has it right. It isn’t just airlines, it is everywhere. A segment of the population has decided that rules don’t apply and manners are for losers. Until that is changed don’t expect anything to improve.
This is not as complicated as you would suggest.
There has been a general coarsening of societal values.
Standards of decorum and behavior are at an all time low.
Every type of disdainful display, no matter how rude, gross, or disruptive, is deemed to fall within the rights of freedom of individual expression.
This is not just on an airplane, but rather all through society.
Sadly, anything goes.
I concur with those above. The social norms of behavior changed in 2016. People began to think they could say or do anything. Why not, their political leadership behaved that way.
I’m not sure we will ever be able to close that Pandora’s box.
Agree with all, obviously the turn that politics has taken….name calling, celebrating rude behavior and disregard for honesty and integrity has influenced a lot of the more vulnerable folks. Throw in the Internet conspiracy theories and misinformation creating folks with a self righteous angry attitude, mix in a lot of people that are under more stress than ever and you have our modern times.
This shows that masks are not to blame for passengers’ bad behavior. In fact, masks are helpful to reduce the spread of illness, including Covid. The pandemic is NOT over. People are acting more stupid, like letting their immunity wane by not getting vaccination within the past year, not wearing masks, traveling while sick, etc.
More people die of Covid than people dying from drunk driving or from any kind of vehicular accident. So, by not wearing a mask and not getting vaccinated (2 or 3 years ago doesn’t count) is worse than drunk driving. The government is already lax by recommending vaccination only once every fall (once a year) and not requiring masks. People should not be so stupid to be so lax. Just like the government doesn’t require condom use with HIV infected vaginas or rectums yet it’s not a bad idea to be protected.
For those blaming Trump or 2016 I think BLM and other causes pushed it also. There is a general sense of entitlement in the US and that goes way beyond our President elect and people that voted for.him.
It’s interesting that no one’s thought to connect the increase of bad behavior on flights AND the increase of near miss incidents (and airline plane tail clippings).
We’re almost five years into a pandemic (it is not over – only the emergency phase is over) of a virus that has well documented, negative effects on the brain. That includes passengers, pilots and ATC.
With repeated infections, the brain damage is becoming more widespread. This where we are, whether we want to believe it or not.
But admitting it would involve changing behavior that would negatively impact the economy, so that’s not going to happen. So we’ll just allow ourselves to be repeatedly infected … and see how that works out.
It’s societal changes, resulting in worse behavior, coupled with increasing selfishness and a collapse in consideration for others that’s to blame. It’s not a political thing – the same applies across the West – but instead part of the current populist politics results from those societal changes.
I flew today: there were no fights or scuffles or raised voices or anything noteworthy. But at the same time pretty well everybody was wrapped up in their own world and not remotely interested in, or concerned about, the needs of their fellow passengers. In stressful situations, it’s easy to see how that situation degnerates.
KLM has seen a doubling of unruly passenger incidents between 2019 and 2023 per a report titled: “KLM, government and airline industry join hands to tackle unacceptable passenger behaviour”. This makes me think that the problem is not just in the USA.
I agree with @Doug and the others. Tough to see how civility is likely to return given the current mentality.
@JL still hasn’t figured out the scam.
Another possibility could be that it is a measurement issue: there may just be a lower tolerance for misbehavior and a greater willingness to file “unruly passenger reports”. I suspect crews may be much more likely post-pandemic to more firmly handle problem passengers, as opposed to the handling of the same behavior five years ago.
(A second anecdotal theory is that flying has just gotten progressively more transactional and adversarial for a segment of passengers — think basic economic and the LCCs — and in turn progressively more stressful, creating conditions for passenger behavior issues.)
Passenger behavior is so bad because of bad judgment, including not wearing masks and not getting covid vaccinations (getting it 3 years ago doesn’t count as immunity has worn off)
I might speculate that this is akin to some of the bad behavior you can see in movie theaters. People are so used to acting how they want at home, they are numb to being courteous at theaters. People interact over the internet filled with petty little people living to be a troll, they just don’t realize they’re in public with different norms. Lock people in homes during covid, have them WFH, get all food delivered, and the modern hermits don’t seem to be able to shift to the I’m-in-public-now persona. Add some alcohol and shake until they’re stirred up. Oh, and the new norm of super-low-brow politics (advanced by Trump, but eagerly embraced by left and right alike) is either, at least in part, a symptom or cause (chicken/egg?).
Allow certain classes of people on an aircraft that should be riding busses; put a bunch of people in a narrow metal tube without adequate space; herd them like cattle; threaten them with flying waiters/waitresses; have delays with no explanations or resolution…what could go wrong?
Airports are a very good indicator of society. And what do we see? An acceptance of morbidly obese, slovenly, loud, crude, dumb, rude, unbathed, unhinged individuals. In fact it’s celebrated.
If I had access to a time machine I’d take my Iphone, download some of the many Spirit/Frontier meltdown Youtube videos and go back to the year 1965. I’d go to an airport where I’d find properly dressed, behaved and presentable adults. I’d claim I have a magic device that will show you air travel 60 years from now. You can only imagine the looks of glee and wonderment. Then I play a video of Frontier/Spirit passengers beating the hell out of each other. Then the change in their faces.
I blame (whichever political party I don’t like, instead of blaming the oligarchs, who are winning this class war, which they convinced us is a culture war).
I tell you it’s the vaccinations that are doing it. People got vaccinated and it’s causing them to react they way they are.
IT’S THE VACCINATIONS!!!!
😉
Trailer trash who voted for Mango Mussolini and Hillbilly Bear should be banned from every airport in the country. You want to travel? Take Greyhound like your cousin-parents did.
People have become comfortable from not getting their asses kicked for being jackasses. Whether it be the passenger, the blue shirt pass scanner, rude gate agent or FA, etc. people act like assholes thinking they’re untouchable. Just my .02
However, I agree with most of the comments above, and hope Derek really gets his 9th booster shot soon. Can’t be complacent son.
I would also point out that many airlines have redone their cabins to pack in more seats. Fliers are more crammed into economy sections which then can make altercations more likely.
The growth in incidents in 2018 and 2019 suggest the trend of increased incidents started pre-Covid, and that we are just now getting back to pre-existing trendlines of growth.
People can complain, but the fact of the matter is that it is a good thing that business travelers are a smaller mix of airline passengers these days, and leisure travelers are a bigger mix. The more people that can experience the wonders of travel, the merrier. So there are obviously a broader mix of people on the planes.
In addition to all the political and social commentary, a few points
1) As Jerry points out, seats are smaller and people are bigger, making air travel more uncomfortable for more people
2) More people are consuming various drugs at airports and onboard planes. Whether prescription drugs, legal marijuana, or flat out illegal drugs, it has to be making a difference. It seems that after a lot of airplane incidents, people blame weed edibles, which are being transported and consumed at airports and on airplanes daily.
3) Mental health episodes – , but a lot of the videos we see of incidents are people who seem to be having various mental health breakdowns. As we see across society, the number of people who have these incidents seem to be growing. Fewer of these videos seem to involve two or more people having clear eyed disputes
According to the NIH, COVID-19 was the deadliest pandemic by sheer numbers. However, the Spanish flu of 1918-1920 was the deadliest in the percentages. Granted, percentages don’t mean anything if one dies or gets sick. Then the percentage is 100%! The NIH says, “Comparing age-standardized mortality rates, there would have been 28 COVID-19- and 194 Spanish flu-related deaths in 1918-1920, or 214 Spanish flu- and 98 COVID-19-related deaths in 2020-2022 per 100 000 inhabitants per year. Thus, taking the population differences into account, the Spanish flu would have been deadlier than COVID-19.” It was also noted that masks were not as effective as once thought. As far as bad behavior, it’s not the politics that’s causing the issues. It is the lack of proper upbringing by parents who appease the child rather than issue proper discipline, oversight and corrections to stop the bad behavior. “My child is not at fault.” seems to be the norm. It’s the lack of education in civics, “It’s my right to XXX.” Well, no it is not your “right”. You’d better read the Constitution and the Declaration Of Independence.
I think you got it there. Business travel is still not fully back and it’s more spread out, and either people just got stupid weird during the pandemic or they always were and got an excuse to act like it at all times.
The amount of inconsiderate behavior. The better half sent me a text from the airline lounge recently to tell me that a someone was having a Zoom business meeting with proprietary information being discussed loudly on laptop speakers. I work in a very regulated industry (financial services), and I would have been fired had it been me. I believe many just don’t care about how to behave in public anymore.