Delta Air Lines plans to establish a "no fly" national list to ban passengers from unruly behavior onboard planes.
SOPA Images/Getty Images via BI Delta Airlines plane.
According to Reuters' first report, the carrier has asked other US airlines for their lists of passengers banned in the disruptive behavior pandemic.
Delta stated in the memo that they had also requested other airlines to share their "no fly" lists to further protect employees within the industry. If a customer is able to fly with another airline, a list of banned customers won't work.
According to the memo, Delta has placed more than 1,600 people on the no-fly list of its own since the COVID-19 pandemic started.
CNBC reported that United Airlines had temporarily expelled more than 1000 people from its flights since the pandemic started. CEO Scott Kirby stated this to CNBC in March.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), although the rate of airline passenger incidents has dropped dramatically since the beginning of the year, it remained twice as high at the end 2020.
According to the FAA's website, there were 4,385 incidents involving unruly passengers between January 2021 and September 2021. It says that more than 3,000 of those incidents were due to passengers refusing a mask. It claims that it has launched nearly 800 investigations in the past year, more than any other since 1995.
In August, the FAA revealed that it would propose more than $1,000,000 in fines for passengers who are disruptive in 2021.
Insider has heard from flight attendants that they are worried about their safety due to the increase in violence by passengers. Passenger violence has led to crew members being punched, spat on and called racist slurs.
On Thursday, US lawmakers and unions representing aviation pushed for new measures to prevent passenger incidents.
Peter DeFazio, Chairman of House Transportation, asked whether there were any legal obstacles to airlines sharing "no-fly" lists. He suggested that the FAA could create a list.
Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (Democrat) asked why the Justice Department wasn't doing more to prosecute flight passengers who were not following rules.
Sara Nelson, President of the Association of Flight Attendants CWA (AFA), stated that the Department of Justice (DOJ), "has been slow in conducting criminal investigations or seeking indictments." She said that Congress should urge the DOJ to act.
A Justice Department spokesperson stated that interference with flight crew members is a federal offense and can lead to a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment.
