Unruly passenger behaviour on rise; 1 incident reported for every 568 flights globally in 2022: IATA

One unruly passenger incident was reported for every 568 flights last year compared to one such incident per 835 flights in 2021, according to international airlines’ grouping IATA.

One unruly passenger incident was reported for every 568 flights last year compared to one such incident per 835 flights in 2021, according to international airlines' grouping IATA.

In recent times, there has been a steep rise in unruly passenger behaviour incidents, including in India.

As it released an analysis of such incidents on Sunday, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) also urged more states to take the necessary authority to prosecute passengers under Montreal Protocol 2014 (MP14).

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"Latest figures show that there was one unruly incident reported for every 568 flights in 2022, up from one per 835 flights in 2021. The most common categorisations of incidents in 2022 were non-compliance, verbal abuse and intoxication.

"Physical abuse incidents remain very rare, but these had an alarming increase of 61% over 2021, occurring once every 17,200 flights," IATA said in a release.

Although non-compliance incidents initially fell after the mask mandates were removed on most flights, the frequency began to rise again throughout 2022 and ended the year some 37% up on 2021, IATA said.