Airlines Ban Alcohol During Flights Following A Spike In Unruly Passengers
Originally published in Forbes.
Air travel is back, but in-flight drinks are being curtailed. Blame unruly passengers.
The loosening of travel restrictions and the availability of vaccines means that travel, especially air travel, is surging towards pre-pandemic highs. Along with those crowds, however, come reports of drunk and unruly passengers, which has prompted some airlines to ban alcohol during flights.
Last week, a high profile incident on a Southwest Airlines flight from Sacramento to San Diego caught the national attention when video surfaced of a fight between a passenger and a flight attendant.
The passenger, identified by Port of San Diego Harbor Police as Vyvianna Quinonez, is seen throwing several punches at a female flight attendant before a second passenger steps between them to break it up. According to the flight attendant’s union, the attendant lost two teeth in the incident, USA Today reports. Quinonez, the unruly passenger, was charged with battery causing serious bodily injury, a felony.
Airlines cut back on in-flight drink and meal service during the pandemic as a way to minimize the times people uncovered their faces; recently, some airlines, such as Delta, have returned to serving full hot meals and drinks.
Southwest was taking a more conservative route and had planned on re-introducing alcohol in late June. Following last week’s incident, as well as reports of general passenger unruliness, Southwest is suspending alcohol sales through June and July, travel site The Points Guy reports.
This weekend, American Airlines joined Southwest in declining to service alcohol in flight in some of its cabins. Like other airlines, American had suspended alcohol service last March to minimize customer interactions. American had reinstated alcohol service on May 1 to the premium cabins, with liquor sales set to resume in the economy section on June 1. However, following the Southwest incident, American will extend its alcohol ban in the economy section through Sept. 13, CNN reports.
Bans on in-flight alcohol service may not stem altercations with belligerent passengers, however.
The FAA has published details of multiple altercations involving passengers who bring their own stash of alcohol on-board, and proceed to drink despite requests not to.
Two passengers on a Jan. 4 JetBlue flight were disruptive and allegedly drank from their own personal alcohol, leading into altercations with attendants. They were escorted off the plane by police and fined $31,750 and $16,750. A passenger on a Jan. 14 SkyWest flight from Arizona to Texas also reportedly drank “multiple 50 ml bottles of his own alcohol”, and became so belligerent that two off-duty law enforcement officers had to wrestle him into his seat; this passenger was later fined $14,500. In Feb., another JetBlue flight was disrupted when a flight attendant told a passenger they could not drink from their own mini bottles of alcohol. The disturbance escalated, and the passenger was fined $18,500.
Since the start of 2021, the FAA has received approximately 2,500 reports of unruly behavior by passengers, many of which are linked to refusing to comply with drinking and federal mask-wearing rules.
