Airline Calls For National Database of Disruptive Passengers
Joe Cortez July 15, 2015
British airline calls for the creation of a national disruptive passenger database after helping authorities capture a fugitive.
A low-cost British carrier is calling on airlines to work together to make flying a safer overall process. Jet2 wants airlines to join forces in creating a national disruptive passenger database, claiming its own initiative helped Manchester authorities capture a fugitive onboard a recent flight.
In May, Jet2 launched its zero-tolerance “Onboard Together” policy, which is applied to all 55 destinations the carrier flies to across Europe. According to the airline, passengers who display racist behavior, threatening behavior to passengers or crew members, or passengers who are drunk on the aircraft will be subject to one or more of the following “appropriate” actions: police prosecution, refusal to board, flight diversion and/or flight ban for life.
The policy was applied during a Jet2 flight on July 13, from Portugal to Manchester Airport (MAN). According to the airline, the accused flyer was displaying intimidating behavior to flight crew and stealing from the in-flight bar. As a result, police were called upon landing, to discover the accused flyer was allegedly in breach of bail conditions. The flyer and his two companions were each given lifetime bans from flying on Jet2.
“The majority of our customers are decent families looking forward to their holiday. They should not have to put up with such unnecessary disruption,” said Phil Ward, managing director of Jet2. “It’s also very encouraging to see that our initiative is helping the authorities capture people trying to evade the law.”
The airline hopes that by creating a national database of disruptive flyers, all British airlines can cut down on future incidents which require aircraft to divert.
[Photo: iStock]
Yea, hell no. There are extreme examples, of course, and sure, those people can be banned from flying the carrier on which they acted like jagoffs. But a lifetime ban on all carriers. No way in heck. The no-fly list in the US is bad enough, and i am terrified of it.
Agreed, Centurion.Too often I read in FlyerTalk about gate agents and flight attendants who abuse passengers, just imagine if they could threaten to ban passengers from all future flights on all airlines. There has to be due process - if a passenger is convicted in a court of law that's differnt from "he said / she said."
Call it by the real name which is a... BLACK LIST. Ripe for abuse in the USA where flight attendants already are overreacting on many occasions.