Prohibition Continues on American Airlines Flights Through January 2022

The earliest economy flyers aboard American Airlines can be served alcoholic beverages is January 2022, when the public transportation face covering mandate is set to expire. While the airline has not directly tied the prohibition to unruly flyer incidents, serving adult beverages appears to have a correlation to poorly behaved passengers.

Flyers holding economy tickets on American Airlines can plan on dry flights for the remainder of 2021. ABC News reports the airline has decided to continue their in-flight prohibition until January 2022, when the national public transportation face mask mandate is set to expire.

Premium Beverages Limited to Forward Classes, While Other Airlines Split on Service

At the height of the pandemic, all U.S.-based carrier severely limited their services to reduce the odds of transmitting the novel Coronavirus between passengers and the flight crews. While both American and Southwest Airlines cut alcohol from the menu, the Fort Worth-based carrier is so far the only one to extend the issue beyond September 2020.

While Southwest contends with personnel issues, the airline has not yet announced if they will also discontinue alcoholic beverage service through the end of the year. United Airlines is currently serving beer, wine and seltzer, but no hard alcohol. Delta Air Lines did not stop serving alcohol and even launched some new beers with select breweries.

The policy coincides with a larger discussion about how alcohol could be contributing to the sharp increase of incidents aboard aircraft. Throughout July and August 2021, situations have escalated to the point where duct tape was used to restrain drunk passengers, while the Federal Aviation Administration has called on airport concessionaires to not overserve flyers prior to departure.

Alcohol Cuts Come After FAA Hits $1 Million Mark in Flyer Fines

The new cuts come as the FAA announced a grand total of over $1 million in proposed fines against passengers behaving poorly on aircraft. In the latest round of penalties, 34 flyers were levied fines ranging from $7,5090 for allegations of death threats to another passenger, to $45,000 to a passenger accused of throwing luggage, refusing to stay seated and putting his head up a flight attendant’s skirt.