Unruly passenger fines top $20 million

The Federal Aviation Administration says it has fined unruly passengers more than $20 million for bad behavior since the pandemic.

The $20.9 million in civil penalties from 2020-2023 is a huge increase.

In 2019 the agency dished out fines of less than $400,000.

In 2020 it was $600,000, and in 2021 it shot up to $5 million.

In 2022, it grew further to more than $8 million.

However, last year saw a first post pandemic decline with fines slightly down to $7.5 million in 2023.

Since incidents sky rocketed due mainly to disputes over wearing masks, the FAA began its ‘zero-tolerance policy toward unruly passengers’ which continues today.

“Unruly behavior is dangerous to everyone because of the threat of health, safety and security, and possible operational disruption of an aircraft,” the FAA said.

The FAA said it had logged almost 900 unruly passenger incident reports so far this year which is significantly down compared to 2021, but still way ahead of pre-pandemic levels.

Of the thousands of incidents since 2021 the FAA has referred about 300 of the ‘most serious cases’ for possible FBI criminal prosecution.

“Unruly passengers are a threat to the safety of everyone on board an aircraft. The FAA’s zero-tolerance policy is working to reduce this threat.” 

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