Travelin’ Banned: Are Airlines Showing Lower Tolerance for Poor Passenger Behavior?

All Ravindra Gaikwad wanted was a business class seat with a little extra legroom and maybe a nice meal on his domestic Air India flight. But the Indian MP instead found himself instead in economy-class on a single-class aircraft and, upon landing in Delhi, in unprecedented amounts of hot water.

You see, Mr. Gaikwad decided to address this problem with a 60 year-old flight attendant – with a slipper. In the face. 25 times.

His method of complaining did not exactly endear him to Air India – from whom the MP had the nerve to demand an apology after the assault – or the entire Federation of Indian Airlines, who joined the Indian flag carrier in banning him for life. If you think this is harsh, or could be a hasty decision made from a misunderstanding, Gaikwad’s record for past behavior is less than stellar: He was also accused of force-feeding a Muslim caterer during Ramadan in 2014.

The blanket ban of the MP sent shockwaves worldwide and elicited great joy from flight attendants especially. Bans are not implemented very often, and when they are it is never across the industry, as happened in this case. It really does take a lot to permanently refuse service to a customer, and often requires a newsworthy event to do so. The infamous “cash me ousside” girl, made famous on the Dr. Phil show for being a particularly out-of-control 12 year-old, got herself and her mother nixed from ever flying Spirit Airlines again when she punched another passenger, who was also banned.

This past November, during a particularly tense time in America following the Presidential election, a Delta passenger was seen loudly yelling pro-Donald Trump slogans and insulting others onboard. He was not kicked off the plane that day – in fact, he was, but agents returned him to the flight shortly thereafter – but when a video of the incident went viral, it caught up to the airline’s upper management, who then took action and implemented the lifetime ban. Delta’s CEO personally stated in regard to the decision, “We must require civility on our planes and in our facilities.

Most airlines refuse to share their criteria for disallowing troublesome travelers for life, but it is presumably for behavior that threatens safety. But Air India’s move as well as Delta’s caused a massive sigh of relief from cabin crews everywhere, since many of us don’t always feel supported when making calls in regard to misbehaving passengers. It’s never an easy decision to make to tell someone they are prohibited from taking a flight they’ve paid for, but sometimes, for the safety and well-being of all on board, it has to be made. Having a crew of multiple people does help to ensure a hasty decision isn’t made by one frustrated flight attendant. But many times disruptive or illegal behavior is tolerated by the airlines, sometimes even resulting in an apology and voucher handed over to the instigator of the problem as they are booked on the next flight, merely being required to offer a promise not to act up again and maybe being told no alcohol would be served to them during the next flight (which goes over fine on the ground, but will sometimes become an issue for the next crew in the air).

There are very clear laws against interference with a flight crew, yet the FAA is lax in enforcement; between 2009 – 2013, the FAA only followed through on fines for one in six, and many of them were able to have their fines dramatically reduced.

It makes not only our jobs but flying in general very difficult when we don’t have the backup of the law. Even since cell phone cameras became ubiquitous and proof of the offenders’s guilt can be readily seen, we find these situations merely treated as an inconvenience to be glossed over. When trouble starts on an airplane, it rarely dies down – if anything, it escalates to a level it likely wouldn’t have reached on the ground. What kind of message does it send to people when a person removed from one flight by police is placed onto another one an hour later? How do you think the offending passenger feels? I would imagine fairly emboldened.

I’m not privy to the information on how many of the passenger incidents I have personally had through the years have resulted in fines or bans. I’m guessing that the number for the latter is zero, since I’ve been lucky enough to not have experienced any behavior that was particularly threatening. But the current state of air travel, in which seats are shrinking and tensions are growing, we need to see the FAA and the airlines standing behind their crews, which are looking out for the safety and comfort of their passengers as well as themselves. It’s very encouraging to see Air India and Delta making a clear effort to show the public that the customer is most certainly not always right. Let’s see airlines present a united front to ensure a zero-tolerance stance where the government often fails to follow through. They ultimately have the choice on who to carry, and I know I would choose the airline who opts to leave the problems on the ground.

[Photo: Shutterstock]