Air New Zealand has asked travellers to embrace the spirit of goodwill this Christmas after reporting a worrying three-year uptick in unruly passenger behaviour. 

The airline is preparing to carry almost 1.7 million travellers between now and February, which is its busiest operating period. A less welcome departure from its regular service is the almost 200 reports a month of problem passengers on Air New Zealand flights. 

The airline’s chief officer for operational integrity and safety, Captain David Morgan says the severity of the incidents and impact on other travellers has become more severe towards the end of the year. 

“Unfortunately, there are some people who fly with us who refuse to follow instructions, verbally abuse other people, or are disruptive,” said Morgan. 

“We’ve recently also seen instances of people being physically abusive.” 

He said while the vast majority of travellers are a pleasure to fly, the growing minority of abusive passengers was a concern. 

Last month a flight out of Wellington to Auckland had to be delayed so two unruly customers could be ejected. At the time Morgan told the Herald that they would take steps to place a ban on the travellers. 

The increase in problem passengers has been a steady trend over the past three years and Morgan said the company has close to 50 incidents reported a week. This 200 passengers a month compares with 572 cases of unruly behaviour reported to the CAA for the whole of 2019. 

Recently, Air New Zealand flight staff, ground crew and customers have reportedly been on the receiving end of unruly or abusive behaviour. 

“We have zero tolerance for such behaviour and will take action to ensure that abusive customers are no longer able to travel with us, if needed to ensure the safety of our team and customers.” 

Air New Zealand said it now issues up to 10 “ban letters” a month to customers for offences that range from refusal to follow crew orders to intoxication. These no-fly orders last from a day to lifetime bans from travelling with the airline. 

Airlines experiencing an uptick in unruly passengers 

The International Air Transport Association has also reported an increase over the past two years on member airlines. In June, IATA said incidents increased from one report in every 835 flights in 2021 to one in every 568 flights in 2022. 

While anecdotally the aviation group said it was witnessing an increase in unruly behaviour “post-pandemic”, a spokesperson for IATA told the Herald that it did not have comparable data from 2019. 

However, previous IATA unruly passenger rates have shown this could be a long-term trend, recording one incident in every 1053 flights in 2017, up from one in 1424 in 2016. 

Raising the issue at its annual meeting in June, IATA’s deputy director general Conrad Clifford said although non-compliance rates had dropped from 2020 with the easing of mask mandates, there was a clear year-on-year rise in unruly passengers in 2022. 

“We make no apology for seeking to crack down on the bad behaviour of a tiny number of travellers who can make a flight very uncomfortable for everyone else,” said Clifford. 

While a “no-fly” ban is a common punishment for unruly passengers, IATA has encouraged countries to follow New Zealand’s handling of disruptive behaviour. 

Under New Zealand law unruly passengers can be given on-the-spot fines, ranging from $500 to $1000, even on international flights. Travellers suspected of committing an offence on a New Zealand-registered aircraft are given “infringement notices” and 28 days to pay the fee at any international airports or request a court hearing.