FAA resorting to memes to fight increase in unruly passengers

SFGATE wasn’t alone in recording the bad behavior. The FAA released its annual, year-end data set to illustrate the unruly passenger incidents that it investigated. 

The report illustrates how airline passengers continue to act out and although the number of cases has subsided from their peak two years ago, this year’s count was still significantly higher than pre-2021.

“The rate of unruly passenger incidents steadily dropped by over 80 percent since record highs in early 2021,” the FAA wrote. “But recent increases show there remains more work to do.”

As of Dec. 10, the FAA had received 1,960 reports of unruly passengers in 2023 and, by year’s end, seems likely to surpass the 2,000-case mark for the third straight year. In 2019, the administration recorded 1,161 cases. 

As expected with more traveling over the summer, July through September had the higher rates of incidents in 2023. 

Airline passengers who act out face several tiers of punishment. They can earn a spot on an internal no-fly list for an airline, pay $37,000 per violation or, in the cases referred to the FBI, face a felony conviction. 

A spokesperson for the FAA explained to SFGATE in an email how it’s trying to diversify its messaging to get the point across. “We’re also aggressively getting the word out about what can happen to people who engage in this dangerous behavior,” Ian Gregor, a spokesperson for the FAA, wrote. “Here’s a link to the meme we developed for Halloween.”

Across the airline industry, people are getting fed up with having to deal with inappropriate behavior on flights.

In August, an American Airlines captain went viral for his pre-departure speech that condemned misbehavior. “You people should treat people the way you want to be treated,” the pilot said. “I have to say it every single flight, because people don’t, and they’re selfish and rude. And we won’t have it.”