Unruly airline passengers in US fined $21M since 2020
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has imposed over $20.9 million in penalties on misbehaving airline passengers, since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. This figure marks a significant increase compared to pre-pandemic years. In 2020, when air travel in the US nearly came to a standstill due to the first confirmed COVID-19 case, the FAA issued $600,000 worth of fines for disruptive behavior on flights.
Fines surged as air travel resumed post-pandemic
As COVID-19 vaccines became widely available and border restrictions started to ease in 2021, more people resumed air travel. This led to a surge in unruly passenger incidents, resulting in the FAA issuing $5 million worth of fines that year. The following year saw an even higher peak with fines totaling $8.4 million, including two of the largest individual penalties for separate incidents amounting to $81,950 and $77,272 respectively.
FAA's zero-tolerance policy
In 2023, the FAA imposed fines worth $7.5 million on disruptive passengers, a slight decrease from the previous year but still significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels. The agency maintains a strict "zero-tolerance policy toward unruly passengers," emphasizing that such behavior poses risks to everyone on board and could potentially disrupt aircraft operations mid-flight.
Unruly passenger incidents see a significant decline
Between 2021 and 2023, the FAA reported a substantial decrease of over 65% in unruly passenger incidents. Despite this decline, the number of cases remained higher than those recorded before the pandemic in 2017, 2018, and 2019. As of September 8 this year, nearly 900 reports of disruptive passengers have been received by the agency.
