Delta Proposes National No-Fly List for Unruly Passengers
Delta Air Lines wants to create a national “no-fly” list for unruly passengers as airlines grapple with a spike in on-board incidents over the last few years.
In a letter to the Justice Department Attorney General Merrick Garland, Delta CEO Ed Bastian said there should be “zero tolerance” for any behavior that affects flight safety. Bastian noted that while such incidents of bad behavior represent a small fraction of overall flights on Delta, the rate of incidents on the airline has increased nearly 100% since 2019. Many of the incidents involve refusal to comply with mask requirements, but there is also an increase of cases where airline staff is attacked verbally and physically.
“This action will help prevent future incidents and serve as a strong symbol of the consequences of not complying with crew member instructions on commercial aircraft,” Bastian wrote in the letter, as reported by AP.
Delta itself has put nearly 1,900 people on its “no-fly” list for refusing to comply with masking requirements and submitted more than 900 banned names to the Transportation Security Administration to pursue civil penalties. Other airlines have taken similar steps with unruly passengers, but they can still continue to fly with numerous other airlines, since there’s no unified no-fly list.
The Federal Aviation Administration also said last year it had taken a “zero tolerance” approach and has referred more than three dozen unruly passengers to the FBI for potential criminal prosecution.
