Dutch flag carrier KLM says unruly passenger incidents onboard its planes and at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport have doubled since 2019, with the airline recording around 30 incidents every month this year compared to an average of just 15 incidents per month before the pandemic.
Six out of every ten unruly passenger incidents occurred onboard the aircraft, and KLM says alcohol was a leading cause of disruptive behaviour in more than half of the incidents it has recorded this year.
Along with potential criminal proceedings, KLM is able to ban unruly passengers from flying on its planes for at least five years. The airline maintains its own no-fly list, which is shared with low-cost subsidiary Transavia but KLM would like to be able to share its no-fly list with other airlines.
On Thursday, KLM signed a letter of intent with the Dutch government and other local airlines to explore the potential of sharing an industry-wide no-fly list.
“The signatories will also be investigating if such information could be shared between all Dutch airlines, subject of course, to applicable legislation governing privacy,” KLM explained in a statement.
“As an airline, the safety and security of our passengers and crew is a top priority,” commented Leen van Duijn, KLM’s vice president of security services.
“For this reason, we don’t tolerate any form of aggression on board. The consequences of passengers misbehaving are severe; it has a major impact on our passengers and our colleagues”.
Along with KLM and Transavia, the other Dutch airlines to have signed the letter of intent with the Dutch government are TUI and Corendon Dutch Airlines.
Last year, KLM called for an international no-fly list, although this would be far more complicated to achieve due to privacy and data protection concerns. At the time, KLM said it was banning around five people per month because of disruptive behaviour onboard its flights.
