Most fliers have, at some point, experienced an inconsiderate or difficult passenger that has made flying a little more uncomfortable. Although reclining the seat back too far can be a huge annoyance, it is often not enough to kick a passenger off a plane. On the other hand, passengers deemed disorderly and unruly face the risk of being banned from future flights with that airline. In recent news, KLM is the newest airline to call for revisions on such rules.
Banned From Flying
Removing passengers from planes is not an act that most airline companies take lightly, although it does happen. This is something that airlines are well within their rights to do for the safety of other passengers and crew. It is usually down to not abiding by the airline’s conditions. In recent pandemic years, not wearing a mask could get you banned from travelling with an airline again. In fact, unruly behaviour increased massively during the months of intense travel restrictions, as we saw with Delta Airlines. Their fourth-quarter earnings call declared that a total of 880 passengers were banned between May 2020 and January 2021. Now, Dutch Airlines want to make this practice an international collaboration.
International Cooperation
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines have openly declared a need for an international no-fly list whereby anyone on the list for one airline could be prevented from travelling on any other airline. On Monday, 3rd October, KLM’s executive vice president said, “Unruly passengers have a major impact on other passengers and our staff,” as he called for more to be done to stop known disruptive fliers from troubling another. Just a few weeks ago, a man punched an American Airlines flight attendant over a dispute regarding seats, and another Ryanair passenger was removed from a flight after being verbally offensive to a flight attendant. KLM suggests that other airlines should also be able to ban dangerous passengers as a way of preventing pre-empted trouble.
Dutch Alliances
Since 29th September, KLM and Transavia Airlines have decided to share information on their ‘no-fly list’ passengers as they announced a mutual five-year ban for disorderly fliers. They are the first airlines worldwide to share this kind of data and hope to expand the scope of all no-fly lists. The announcement is sure to send a message to prospective fliers who may now be less likely to cause trouble on flights at the risk of being banned by more than one airline. This new measure will hopefully act as a deterrent to disrespectful passengers and, if adopted by other airlines, could subsequently improve the safety onboard planes.
What do you think about KLM’s call for an alliance with Transavia Airlines? Do you think that the no-fly list should be adopted worldwide? Let us know in the comments!
