The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), has asked airlines for more help in reducing the number of passenger incidents. Delta Air Lines just came up with a great proposal.
Delta would like to have a no fly list for disruptive passengers
We've seen airlines establish no-fly lists to protect passengers from misbehaving, especially when they try to conceal compliance since the outbreak of the pandemic. Delta, for example, has 1,600+ passengers on its list. Other airlines also have significant numbers of passengers on these lists.
This structure means that passengers on the list cannot fly with an airline for at least the duration of the federal mask mandate. These lists can't be shared between airlines so passengers can still fly with other airlines. This could change soon.
Delta proposes the idea of a national no fly list for disruptive passengers. This would allow airlines to share their lists so that anyone on any of these lists could not fly with another airline. Kristen Manion Taylor (Deltas SVP of Inflight Service), wrote the following memo to flight attendants.
To further protect employees in the airline industry, we asked other airlines for their no fly lists. This is something that we are sure you will be interested in. If a customer is able to fly with another airline, a list of banned customers won't work.
The FBI is currently running the federal no-fly lists in the United States. It helps to combat terrorists.
Delta asks airlines to share their no fly lists
This is a great idea
The FAA requested airlines to submit proposals earlier this week that would lower the number of incidents on board aircraft. We have received nearly 4,300 reports of unruly passengers in 2021. 75% of these were due to wearing masks and 61% used homophobic, sexist or racist slurs.
I stated at the time that I wasn't sure there were many more airlines capable of doing this. Instead, I believe the greatest areas for improvement are:
Airport police should arrest anyone who causes flight disturbances and not release them immediately
Inflight disturbances should be investigated by more people. Currently, only a small fraction of disrupting travelers are being prosecuted.
I believe that Delta's proposal is very sensible. Temporarily being barred from one airline isn't that severe a punishment, unless you are a state senator from Alaska. You can fly any airline. I believe that threatening to ban people from flying by air would be a more effective deterrent.
I'm not a lawyer so I don't know how this would work logistically. Are there legal issues if airlines share these lists with each other? Or would the government have to be involved in a formal way?
I used to be concerned that airline employees might abuse their power for lists like this in the past, but after seeing the behavior of the last 18 months, I am much less worried.
This concept has a lot to offer, I believe.
Bottom line
Delta proposes to create a national no fly list for disruptive passengers. Each airline has its own list. This means that anyone banned from one airline can fly on another. There is merit in airlines sharing their lists of passengers who are banned from unruly behavior so these people don't have to fly on another airline.
In the last 18 months we have seen shocking behavior on planes, and I believe it is now that the time is right for something like this.
What do you think of Delta's proposal to create a no-fly national list for unruly travellers?
