FAA Data Reveals Continued Increase in Unruly Passenger Incidents

The good news is that unruly airline passenger behavior continues to decline from the record levels reached during the pandemic-era.

The bad news?

Unruly passenger incidents are still far higher than they were prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The latest data from the Federal Aviation Administration shows that about 2,031 unruly passenger incidents occurred in 2023.

That’s a 59 percent decline from 2022, when there were 2,455 such incidents. It’s also a major drop from the 2021 high of 5,973 unruly passenger reports.

But rewind to the pre-Covid days of 2019 and it becomes clear that we're still suffering through a bad behavior epidemic of its own.

Case in point: There were just 1,161 unruly passenger incidents in 2019. What’s more, in 2018, there were a mere 889 such reports. All of which means bad behavior in 2023 was more than double what it was five years ago.

There may be a variety of reasons why bad behavior continues to plague the skies. During the pandemic it was often linked to the COVID-era rules and regulations, which more than a few passengers felt was reason-enough for a temper tantrum. But now that the global COVID-19 crisis has faded into the rear view mirror, it may be time to consider other issues and triggers.

“Research has shown that while industry-level factors such as delayed and canceled flights, poor customer service, and overcrowded seating contribute to increased unruly behavior, additional contextual elements related to personal use of alcohol (prohibited and served) have also played a role in this shift,” says a study titled “Flying the not-so-friendly skies: airline passenger misconduct.”

The study, which was covers data from 1990 through 2020, is focused on three types of passenger misconduct: physical, verbal, and “other general types.”

The results show that a variety of factors create the opportunity for bad passenger behavior including "environmental factors, spatial context, weak enforcement of existing federal legislation, as well as industry structures and practices.”

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