- Air travelers are more anxious, stressed out, and overtired than at any time since the pandemic.
- The number of inflight incidents reported to the Federal Aviation Administration remains elevated.
- Airlines have to defuse this summer bomb by giving passengers a little more personal space and removing junk fees.
Is it my imagination, or are air travelers getting angrier at each other this summer?
It is not. Passengers like Leigh Shulman agree. She admitted that she almost lost her cool as she boarded a recent flight. Shulman had just broken her ankle and was hobbling around the airport, one baby step at a time.
“Other travelers were pushing me around,” she said. “They apparently didn’t notice the boot.”
Shulman felt her blood pressure rising, and it stayed that way for the duration of the journey. “I was pissed off for hours,” she said. She blames a combination of poor airport design, indifferent airlines, and increasingly selfish passengers.
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This is probably the busiest summer for air travel in the U.S. That means planes will be packed to capacity. It’s also a contentious summer, with a divisive U.S. election just ahead. Making matters worse: The recent wave of flight cancellations after the CrowdStrike meltdown.
It’s a tinderbox just waiting for a spark, according to experts.
Because of all this, travelers seem more anxious, stressed out, and overtired than at any time since the pandemic, said Jeremy Murchland, president of Seven Corners, a travel insurance company.
“To cope with that stress, they’re lashing out in inappropriate ways,” he said.
Shulman, a writing coach and public speaker, said she resisted the urge to take a swing at one of her fellow passengers, despite being jostled around.
“I took a few deep breaths,” she said. “Then I boarded the flight.”
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Angry air traveler incidents are making headlines again
There have been so many incidents of angry air travelers that it’s hard to compile a highlight reel. But here goes:
- How about the passenger on a Frontier Airlines flight who refused to comply with the crew’s instructions when sitting in an exit row? After a loud confrontation, law enforcement escorted her off the plane.
- Or the couple who recently got into a loud argument on a United Airlines flight from London to Newark. When flight attendants asked them to calm down, they turned belligerent and the male passenger threatened to “mess up the plane.” He was arrested and fined $20,638 after the flight had to be diverted to Bangor, Maine.
- Rapper Sandra “Pepa” Denton said she was escorted off a Southwest Airlines flight after a disagreement over seating. And Terrell Davis, the NFL Hall of Famer, was led off a United Airlines flight in handcuffs following an exchange with a flight attendant. (United has apologized to Davis and is investigating the incident.)
The statistics also paint a troubling picture. The Federal Aviation Administration reports that inflight incidents remain elevated, and “recent increases show there remains more work to do,” it added. (Overall, unruly passenger incidents appear to be trending downward after the pandemic.)
Why are passengers so angry?
So what’s making airline passengers so crabby? It comes down to three things, experts say.
- Manners have gone out the window: Let’s not mince words: People are ruder than ever, and that antisocial behavior is amplified when you’re sitting in a pressurized aluminum tube with nowhere to go. Manners are disintegrating across society, not just at the airport. But there’s one thing that sustains this unacceptable behavior, according to etiquette expert Rosalinda Oropeza Randall. “There are no consequences,” she said. It’s true, many incidents go unreported because they’re just little temper tantrums.
- Flying is even more stressful than usual: Travel is more of a hassle than ever. Fuller flights and less storage space make flying even more stressful than at any time in recent memory. The number of inflight incidents reported to the Federal Aviation Administration remains elevated when compared to pre-pandemic levels. And the number of high-profile altercations between flight attendants and passengers seems to multiply by the week. No two ways about it – air travel is putting us under a lot of pressure.
- Junk fees are multiplying: “A big factor in consumers losing their tempers is the feeling that they are getting nickel and dimed at every turn,” said Beth Walter, who teaches business communication at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business. She said extra costs for luggage and seat assignments make passengers upset. “No one likes hidden fees, and if they pop up during trips, they can easily trigger the temper of a stressed-out, exhausted traveler who has been preparing for their summer vacation since last year and is expecting that everything goes according to plan,” she added.
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What you can do to keep your cool this summer
Look, I’m not gonna lie. The best way to stay calm this summer is to find another way to get there or to just stay home.
Travelers want to have it all – a great trip with zero stress. That’s impossible. I travel constantly, and I always experience anxiety in the same places – the security checkpoint, at customs, before boarding, and at the luggage conveyor belt.
Shulman, the passenger with the broken ankle, has the right idea, according to Colleen Newvine, who teaches a stress management workshop.
“Breathe slowly and deeply, exhaling twice as long as you take for your inhale, to help tell your nervous system that you’re safe,” she said.
What if someone is being rude to you? Don’t retaliate, advises etiquette expert Nick Leighton.
“Never respond to rudeness with more rudeness,” he said.
That just leads to an escalation – and then you’ll be in my next highlight reel. Instead, Leighton said you should assume an etiquette crime isn’t being committed intentionally and deliberately. Give your fellow passengers the benefit of the doubt, and you will find a solution.
Finally, remember to pack your manners. That’s the advice of Thomas Plante, a psychology professor at Santa Clara University.
“It all comes down to respect and compassion,” he told me. “Typically, escalating tensions can be diminished if you show both respect and compassion to the person who is getting upset.” Yes, even on a plane, in a crowded airport, or at an overcrowded luggage carousel.
Airlines have to defuse this summer bomb
If it seems like I’m blaming passengers for the escalation of anger, let me correct you: I’m not. The U.S. airline industry bears a lot of the responsibility for creating this problem. It can easily defuse this summer bomb.
How? Just give passengers a little more personal space by moving the seats farther apart instead of packing travelers in like sardines. Remove the junk fees that irritate travelers. Maybe give flight attendants a little more customer service training instead of combat training. But at a time when airline profitability is waning, good luck with getting that.
If airlines started treating us with respect and compassion, maybe we would start behaving with respect and compassion.
Oh, I know. Dream on. But someone had to say it.
Christopher Elliott is an author, consumer advocate, and journalist. He founded Elliott Advocacy, a nonprofit organization that helps solve consumer problems. He publishes Elliott Confidential, a travel newsletter, and the Elliott Report, a news site about customer service. If you need help with a consumer problem, you can reach him here or email him at chris@elliott.org.
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