‘Anywhere there are bogans’: Alcohol, drugs, cramped aisles fuel air rage surge

The enthusiastic return to commercial flying has revealed a darker side: a rise in disruptive passenger behaviour, with flight crews increasingly confronted by passengers who are belligerent towards them and impatient with safety protocols.

As people embrace air travel in the years after COVID lockdowns, the surge in unruly passengers and “air rage” has not subsided, creating irritations and occasional threats to the security and safety of commercial aviation.

One flight attendant with decades of experience, who asked not be named, recounts one episode: “I was in a situation where I thought I was on the verge of needing to either physically defend myself or the other crew from a passenger.

“The passenger was leaning over trying [to intimidate] two female crew members who were sort of cowering in the corner by the door.”

The passenger was “saying all kinds of pretty disgusting things to them, quite frankly”.

The problem, it seems, is not going away.

The Australian Federal Police charged 1349 people with 1622 offences in 2022-23, 1088 people with 1314 offences in 2023-24, and 1245 people with 1511 offences in 2024-25.

Drivers of the behaviour are often alcohol-related, but also reflect the realities of consumer choice in aviation today.

As more international flights can be done with narrow-body, single-aisle planes, the logistics of food service change.

On some flights, passengers are encouraged to buy food and drink from back-of-seat menus, prompting continual pressing of the call bell. With the beverage cart occupying a lone aisle, it is difficult for attendants to reach impatient customers forward or aft of the trolley.

The same cart on a single-aisle plane can also prevent passengers from getting to the lavatory, creating another frustration.

“There’s a limited amount of space on board, and if everyone behaves in a way where they think they’re having a Sunday session, then it’s just chaos,” said the attendant.

While incidents of unruly passengers can occur on any flight, services to and from Bali have been singled out as a source of problems.

“Anywhere there are bogans basically flying for a cheap holiday is where you’ll encounter the problems,” said the flight attendant.

Passengers on their way to a beach getaway or returning from one can often have a frame of mind that encourages such acting out.

“The problem is that they know we can’t chuck them out,” said the attendant. “In a licensed venue, they would just get thrown out. We can’t do that. We have to manage the situation in the air.”

It’s not just drunken boorishness. In cases compiled by the Transport Workers Union, one flight was diverted because of a passenger’s erratic behaviour from a drug episode. Another attendant was pushed into a row of seats, sworn at and fobbed off when giving the safety briefing.

The flight attendant with decades of experience explained: “People know when they’re on board that they can kind of get away with probably a bit worse than what they would in a normal pub or a normal venue.”

Airlines and crew typically seek to de-escalate the situation with a disruptive passenger.

Flight crews have “comprehensive training” for in-flight scenarios, including those related to on-board security.

Beyond cutting off the passengers’ supply of alcohol, the next move is to get the police involved “on the ground” if the passenger’s behaviour “has progressed to that point”.

That makes for a tense flight as flight crews attempt to manage and de-escalate a volatile situation. The plane’s captain is kept up to date on the unfolding situation.

Crews at Jetstar can communicate directly with the airlines’ operations centre to work out a plan of action.

A spokesperson for the airline said its crews were highly trained to de-escalate disruptive behaviour. Nevertheless, there may be times when “a stronger intervention is needed, including diverting the aircraft for the safety of everyone on board and requesting assistance from police”.

Flight crews are ready and willing to do that, the spokesperson said, because “we’ll always prioritise the safety of our crew and our customers”.

Aviation expert Keith Tonkin said: “The pilots are first and foremost flying the aircraft and ensuring that it continues as planned but also keeping very aware of the situation in the cabin and making contingency plans in case that situation takes a turn for the worse or for some reason they need to divert.

“So part of your continuous planning when you’re flying is to know where you’re going next for whatever reason, whether it’s a medical emergency or to deal with that sort of in-flight situation, and to be able to divert.”

TWU national secretary Michael Kaine called cabin crew “aviation’s first responders”.

“Every day, they deal with aggressive passengers, medical emergencies and other stressful scenarios, and increasingly they don’t have enough experienced staff to do it,” said Kaine.

The union would like to see a Safe and Secure Skies Commission to ensure aviation staffing decisions are made “in the public interest”.

AFP superintendent (national aviation) Amanda Glover said: “The AFP has zero tolerance for any form of anti-social or dangerous behaviour directed at travellers, workers and law enforcement members in the aviation environment.”

“The AFP is committed to protecting the travelling public and officers will not hesitate to act when safety at the airports or on planes is threatened by disruptive or violent behaviour.”

Legal repercussions are just part of the picture; the airlines themselves can – and sometimes do – ban quarrelsome customers from flying.

A 2021 voluntary code of practice by the airlines on passenger behaviour said that in addition to preventing a customer to board a plane, the airlines could seek to hold “passengers who are offensive or disruptive accountable for their behaviour, including recouping costs for diversions and damage to the aircraft and imposing bans on future travel”.

Disruptive behaviour appears to be part of a global trend.

International Air Transport Association figures show that based on 53,538 incident reports from more than 60 operators globally, there was one incident for every 395 flights in 2024 versus one incident for every 405 flights in 2023.

“Non-compliance with crew instruction was the most frequent descriptor,” IATA said. “However, the number of reports mentioning verbally and physically abusive behaviours also increased in 2024.”

Being in the air and at close quarters, unruly passengers create tension and fear for others onboard.

“While [cabin crew] are dealing with a particular passenger, they’re being diverted away from keeping an eye on what else is going on in and providing that service.”

For cooped-up passengers, disruptions can influence the experience of the entire cabin. “It takes a lot of confidence away from the other travellers about how safe and how enjoyable the flight’s going to be,” said Tonkin.

For frontline crew, disruptions are a source of concern.

A recent survey of about 400 cabin crew by the Transport Workers Union found that for almost three quarters (73 per cent), “their safety at work has been compromised by customer abuse/anger” while 77 per cent had “dealt with passengers presenting risks to the public”.

In the same survey, cabin crew reported a sundry list of volatile and dangerous situations with unruly passengers. In one case, a passenger “under influence of drugs, set himself on fire. Arrested on arrival.”

Another said they had to call AFP “on a number of occasions to meet the aircraft due to aggressive passenger behaviour that threatened the safety of the passengers”.

“Passenger behaviour is becoming more radical, more aggressive and it’s becoming more dangerous to be contained in a metal tube with them,” said another flight attendant.

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