When Helen Cleaver boarded a flight from Stansted to Ibiza, her heart sank as she walked up the steps.
‘I was one of only about four female passengers,’ she says. ‘Almost everyone else seemed to be going on a stag do. Lots of the men were drunk and rowdy before we even took off. You could smell the alcohol coming off them.’
She expected the worst, but the carnage that ensued went beyond that. A fight broke out in the aisles. One young man had blood pouring down the side of his face as a fellow passenger had taken a bite out of his ear. ‘He was so drunk,’ says Helen, ‘that I’m not sure he even noticed.’ When the plane landed, Spanish police stormed on board and dragged the offenders away, still drunkenly kicking and screaming.
Drunken, violent and abusive incidents on planes, such as this, have been on the rise for years. But there has been a significant jump since the pandemic. In 2019, according to official Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) statistics, there were 390 occasions when airlines reported ‘difficulty in controlling intoxicated, violent or unruly passengers’. By 2023, the number had risen to 1,245 incidents, and in 2024 it remained well over 1,000.
These aren’t just drunks shouting and fighting, like in Helen’s experience. That incident may not have even been recorded. The airlines are only required to inform the CAA about the most serious incidents. That’s when crew members are physically abused, flights have to be diverted, passengers restrained in their seats or similar.
Air rage is on the rise worldwide, too. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) reports that there was a disruptive passenger incident for every 395 flights in 2024 vs one incident for every 405 flights in 2023.
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Cabin crew told us that the one thing that most ‘air rage’ incidents have in common is alcohol. A former British Airways cabin crew member said that ‘every crew member I’ve ever worked with’ agreed that banning booze would be a ‘simple fix’ for most on-board violence. However, they made the point that airlines and airports worldwide profit too much from the sale of alcohol to make changes.
We first wrote about the issue of rising disruption on board planes and alcohol in 2018. The same year, the then aviation minister, Baroness Sugg, along with airlines and airports, launched the One Too Many campaign. It warned of fines and prison time for people who get drunk and cause trouble on planes. Airports also promised to curb people from drinking too much in their bars and pubs.
EasyJet told us that since then, it has made a concerted effort to address problem passengers. Ryanair has been outspoken in its condemnation of drinking culture at airports. Yet both airlines have run prominent drinks promotions in the past couple of years. ‘Summer is finally here,’ Ryanair’s press team announced in May 2024, ‘and what better way to kick-start your summer holiday than with a delicious cocktail from Ryanair’s new in-flight cocktail menu?’
EasyJet had a premium lager promotion this summer. Passengers were encouraged to send a selfie of themselves ‘enjoying a Birra Moretti onboard an easyJet flight’ for the chance to win a trip to Italy. When we asked easyJet about this, it said that it permits drinking in moderation and the ad in question encouraged people to have just one drink. Industry body AirlinesUK, whose members include BA, easyJet, Jet2 and Ryanair, told us that it has ‘a zero-tolerance approach to disruptive behaviour’.
Helen Cleaver didn’t see evidence of this zero-tolerance approach on board her flight to Ibiza. The rowdy group were already drunk when they boarded the plane, but cabin crew continued to serve them more alcohol before the fight broke out. When Helen asked cabin crew ‘Why did you keep serving them when they are already drunk?’, the beleaguered flight attendant responded ‘They can get nasty if we don’t.’
It’s always cabin crew who are on the front line in dealing with aggression or violence. The flight crew aren’t allowed to leave the cockpit during disruption, so flight attendants are on their own. In reality, there is often little they can do.
The former BA flight attendant mentioned earlier said that they sometimes felt let down by the ground crew. ‘On countless occasions, they allowed passengers to board my flights clearly inebriated, and we have had to either offload them or, on some occasions, the cabin manager has decided they are OK to fly if we keep an eye on them. I wasn’t comfortable having them on board when I’d witnessed their behaviour while boarding, knowing they will only want to drink more during the flight.’
One passenger, Nick Croft, told us about a group of lads drunkenly wrestling each other as they waited at the gate. As time went on, the play-fighting got out of control and became increasingly violent. ‘The airline staff could clearly see what was going on, but they never challenged the lads or their behaviour,’ he says. ‘They were allowed to board and – surprise surprise – they then became loud and disruptive on the flight.’
It’s not all bad news. Airports argue that the One Too Many campaign against drunken passengers is working. It combines dire warnings posted at airports about the consequences of excessive drinking (up to two years in prison, large fines) with, they say, a greater emphasis on preventing the worst offenders from boarding.
When it launched in 2018, the number of incidents stabilised for the next couple of years, despite overall traveller numbers increasing. The number of disruptive passenger incidents has fallen slightly between the record high in 2023 and in 2024, when the campaign was relaunched. However, it’s not only drunkenness that results in bad behaviour. There is compelling evidence that the way we fly today creates the perfect conditions for air rage.
When we asked Which? members about disruptive incidents, they told us about plenty of drunks, abusive passengers and bad language. But we also heard about smaller, more niggling incidents. People reported squabbles over reclining seats, passengers taking up more than their fair share of space, elbows extending beyond the armrests and failure to control children.
Part of the reason why so many of these small annoyances are now turning into full-blown arguments – and even violence – is because of how much more stressful and confrontational air travel has become. A study of incidents in China concluded that three factors increased the likelihood of violence: long delays, passenger density at the boarding gate and night flights.
Cabin crew we spoke to did not doubt that delays had a huge impact. Some passengers could end up drinking for far longer than planned in the bar. Every year in our airports survey, we report on the fraught security queues, the struggle to find seats and the overcrowding that bedevils travel at peak times.
Last week, we reported on the confrontational ‘cabin bag wars’ – as airline gate staff pull passengers from the gate queue to challenge them over the size of their bag. It’s often done rudely, as passengers are threatened with fines. Even more significant are the psychological effects of trying to squeeze ourselves into ever more cramped seats.
In 1975, the average seat pitch – that’s the distance between your seat and the one in front – was around 34 inches. In 1995, it was 32 inches. Now it’s typically around 30 inches. A study by US academics in 2015, Air rage: what factors influence passenger anger?, suggested that when you turn space on the plane into an increasingly valuable, threatened resource, there’s potential for people to blow a fuse when that resource is taken away from them.
There’s absolutely no excuse for violence or yobbery, but research shows that corralling people into a tight space can make them more likely to behave badly, which then impacts us all. Spending hours in an airport with too few seats and not enough toilets – or worse, stuck in a seat you can’t fully fit into – is a recipe for grumpiness. And in already drunk or unbalanced individuals, that can tip over into rage.
This does mean that there are ways you can reduce – although, not eliminate – the likelihood that you face air rage on your next trip. Fly from a more relaxed airport. Choose an airline with friendly staff and fewer cancellations or delays. Our analysis of incident times also suggests that avoiding specific months can increase the likelihood of a trouble-free trip – particularly if you’re flying to a holiday hotspot such as the Balearics or the Spanish Costas.
CAA statistics show that the most incidents take place in June and May, even though more people travel in August. That’s likely because June and May are also the peak season for stag and hen dos. The worst times to fly are Thursday afternoons (many groups take the Friday off, for a long weekend) or Fridays. The CAA has also said that you’re more likely to see trouble on your way out than on the return flight. Approximately 35% of UK flights are outbound to overseas destinations, yet these flights account for more than 60% of all disruptive incidents.
| Month | Number of reported incidents |
| June | 455 |
| May | 446 |
| August | 380 |
| July | 373 |
| March | 358 |
| April | 356 |
| September | 344 |
| December January | 311 |
| October | 301 |
| February | 291 |
| November | 284 |
Total number of disruptive incidents reported to the CAA by airlines through the Mandatory Occurrence Reporting system 2018-2024 (not including 2020 and 2021).
We put the points in this article to the airlines mentioned. Ryanair denied that it had a significant role to play in reducing alcohol consumption. It said: ‘The problem is not drinking on board one-hour flights. The excessive drinking occurs in airport terminals where no limits are placed on alcohol consumption, especially during flight delays.’ It also claimed that studies suggesting any link between the stressful modern flying experience and bad behaviour were ‘fake news’.
EasyJet said: ‘Our focus is the safety and wellbeing of all our customers and crew on board. Our ground crew are trained and empowered to deny boarding to any customer who they have concerns over being intoxicated. Our [cabin] crew are trained and empowered to refuse the service of alcohol to any customer and frequently do. No one should have to endure unacceptable behaviour or feel threatened in their workplace.’
British Airways didn’t respond to our request for comment. Although there’s plenty that airlines and airports can do, abusive or violent behaviour on board a flight is never justifiable. Individual responsibility is key. Currently, airlines can blacklist individuals from flying with them again, but they can’t stop them from flying with another carrier.
In 2023, a private member’s bill was brought to parliament, with the intention of giving courts the power to ban passengers from flying with any airline for a period of time. With the current levels of disruption, it might be an idea whose time has come again.
