The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is extending its zero-tolerance policy for unruly airline passengers, as incidents of disruptive behavior are still “far too high” to rescind the order, according to the head of the agency.
FAA Chief Steve Dickson announced the extension on Monday. The agency’s zero-tolerance policy, originally announced in January, was previously scheduled to expire on March 30.
“Since the cases are still too high, and it tells us urgent action continues to be required,” stated Dickson, who added that the FAA’s security inspectors and attorneys will “take sturdy enforcement motion towards any passenger who disrupts or threatens the protection of a flight, with penalties starting from fines to jail time.”
The prolonged policy will last for so long as the CDC and TSA’s current masks mandates stay in impact for airline passengers and people passing through security checkpoints or travel hubs, the FAA says.
The original policy, which first took impact in January, was enacted in response to a “disturbing enhance” in unruly conduct, Dickson stated at the time. The order also took impact approximately one week after airlines reported an uptick in unruly passengers, with some carriers citing cases onboard flights traveling to or from Washington D.C. during the week of the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol.
“We’ll not adjudicate certain of these unruly passenger cases with counseling or warnings. We’re going to go straight to enforcement,” stated Dickson, who warned violators of possible jail time or fines of up to $35,000.
Since late December, the FAA has received over 500 complaints from airways regarding such behavior and thousands of people (upwards of 2,800) had been listed on the collective “no-fly” lists of the nation’s major airlines as of mid-January, with the carriers confirming that many had been banned from travel for defying masks mandates during the course of the pandemic.
