Canning the booze and biff

By way of contrast, in the US there has been a steady decline in air rage incidents in the past five years. Between 2004 and 2008, the number of incidents dropped from 304 to 120. As of November 9 last year there were just 88 for the year to date! The incidents in Australia covered all events where passengers were disruptive on aircraft including intoxicated passengers, altercations between passengers and other unruly behaviour.

The figures prompted the Australian Services Union (ASU) federal secretary Linda White to warn that the penalties, a maximum $5500 fine, were not severe enough.

“They are obviously not a deterrent,” White told Contrails.

She laid the blame squarely on alcohol, with overcrowded airports another significant factor.

In 2008 Qantas withdrew spirits from its flights across the country, except in WA and Mt Isa because of slow demand, but added more premium beer selections.

In October last, Qantas was forced to ban spirits and fullstrength beer on all its flights within Western Australia because of drunken behaviour, mainly of resource industry workers.

However, after repeated problems with drunken passengers, and with the support of the airline’s key resource company accounts, Qantas axed all alcohol except wine and light beer in WA.

An ASU survey found 81 per cent of airline workers in Perth had been abused by passengers.

The Flight Attendants Association of Australia has lauded the new restrictions. Association president Steven Reed has said that Australian travellers, particularly resource workers, “drink to excess”.

Both the FAAA and the ASU lay part of the blame on the airport experience, with Perth top of the list. White hopes that recent completion of expansion works will ease the problems that have passengers near boiling point before they board an aircraft.

The disturbing trend has been building for some time, with airlines in Australia, New Zealand and the UK all noting significant increases in air rage incidents. The one common factor is binge drinking, which has reached epidemic proportions in the three countries.

Research by Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority found that almost half of air rage incidents were connected to alcohol abuse.

According to David Lewis, a leading British neuropsychologist from Mind Lab, an independent research consultancy, British and Australian passengers are more prone to air rage than ever. In a survey conducted at London’s Heathrow Airport, Dr Lewis, who coined the phrase “road rage” 25 years ago, found that a “growing frustration with the overall state of the airline industry was another major culprit of air rage” and that “alcohol made it a lethal cocktail”.

In fact, some airline numbers in Australia are higher than the OTS figure, with one operator telling Contrails it is getting an incident report every two days with about 35 per cent of those related to dissatisfaction with service levels.

And that dissatisfaction has its roots in the rise and rise of low cost carriers.

Also, airlines and staff are taking the problem far more seriously. According to the ASU’s White, airline staff have had enough and they are now more confident about reporting an incident.

Another airline told Contrails that while figures were trending upwards over the past two years, most of those were disruptive incidents. Unruly incidents were up slightly, but there was no increase in violent incidents.

There is no doubt that technical and cabin crew are more focused on security issues in general and the rules are now strictly enforced. Airlines certainly have far more robust reporting processes, with better data captured even on smaller incidents.

And airlines such as Qantas are warning that they will prosecute. A spokesman told Contrails “that we have a low tolerance for any disruptive behaviour – inflight or at the airport – that impacts on our customers or our employees, and we take all incidents seriously. ” “We will also seek to recover all costs incurred, including for diversions if required, as a result of in-flight incidents, from those involved,” he added.

The number of air rage incidents in Australia is profoundly disturbing and reflects badly on the majority of travelers.

The federal government is reviewing the laws relating to disruptive behaviour and much tougher penalties are expected.

It is then up to the courts to impose them.