Fighting the rise of 'air rage'

[BetpumpS]

Gatwick Airport

BBC NEWS | England | Sussex | Fighting the rise of 'air rage' (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/sussex/8027930.stm)

Why am I not surprised

[Capot]

I'm not surprised either.

It's easy and facile to blame the problem on alcohol.

But, apart from the very rare individuals who fly into uncontrollable rages without the aid of alcohol, the role of alcohol is to push already enraged people over the brink.

So reducing the availability of alcohol would reduce the problem.

But until it is recognised that the root cause is that the way in which airlines and airports treat their customers would drive a Saint into punching the next staff person he/she sees on the nose, the problem won't go away. I rarely get into my seat, finally, without experiencing rage at one or more points in the process at the way I and other pssengers are being treated.

Tyhe budget carriers are particulalry bad; I still get angry even when booking next week's flight, as you fend off the unpleasant attempts to trick the customer into buying unnecessary and overpriced services (£84 for 6 Kg baggage GLA/ALC, "Speedy Boarding" scam, insurance for return flight that costs the same as an annual policy for unlimited travel etc etc.)

Once in the airport, especially a BAA one, the passenger is treated like a cash cow to be herded about by rude staff whose only objective is to minimise the inconvenience to them of actually providing a service, encouraged and abetted by management policies that would cause riots in Kazakhstan, let alone Stansted.

The stupidity, queues, time-wasting and indignity of the pointless Security rigmarole winds up the aggravation, followed, in all airports but especially BAA by being confronted with shops selling over-priced tat taking the place of somewhere to sit comfortably while waiting, over-priced and disgusting food and drink outlets, and a route march to a distant boarding gate.

Get all that put right, and watch the air rage disappear. But of course, it's easy to blame the alcohol, so let's just go on doing that.

It's Air France next week. Ah well........

[BetpumpS]

I was thinking more in terms of Gatwick=Low cost & charter flights=pikey

[Envoy320]

i go on holiday.....
i fly with various airlines who try and over charge or offer things with "hidden charges"....
i go through security....
i'm route marched to distant gates.....
i buy overpriced rubbish in the over priced stores in the airports....
i have a few drinks......

i'm not the sort of person who be involved in any form of air rage....FULL STOP.

STOP blaming airports, airlines, alcohol.

It is the way these imbeciles are brought up and live their miserable lives.

Stop THEM from having a passport and flying, then you will see the air rage stop.

[BetpumpS]

When you say THEM, are you pertaining to Pikeys?

[Envoy320]

I am pertaining to the low life scum who find it acceptable to behave in a violent and threatening way on board an aircraft.

Remove their passport as soon as they offend.....this will stop air rage.

[al446]

I was thinking more in terms of Gatwick=Low cost & charter flights=pikey

So which bleedin country estate do you own?

[west lakes]

BBC NEWS | England | Surrey | Air rage man banned from flights (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/surrey/8029991.stm)

[manintheback]

Given the huge rise in passengers year on year (until this), has the actual proportion of incidents risen that much if at all?

[deltayankee]

Flying is never going to go back to being reserved for the elite. Whether you like it or not the masses are going to travel and blaming riff raff for these crimes is not a solution. Giving it a cop out name like air rage is also misguided.

I would not be at all surprised to learn that the growth of incidents is less than the growth of passenger volume but that is not an excuse for not stopping them. Since there is no escape for crew and other passengers any episode of violence on an aircraft is much worse than in, say, a nightclub.

[TightSlot]

Capot - interesting thoughts: I agree with you, but not completely

I've morphed into one of those "Grumpy Old Men" that have their own show on TV: I find almost everything vexing beyond belief - Call-Centres, Taxes, Administration Charges, Cretinous know-nothing staff, Public-sector-I-don't-give-a-stuff-about-you employees, expensive public transport, militant vegetarians. I could populate Jet-Blast on the subject. And so could almost everybody in here. I am, quite regularly, driven to the point of fury by things over which I have no control.

But I don't threaten, frighten and hurt other people as a result, and I am personally responsible for my own behavior.

Blaming the airport and airline infrastructure strikes me as being too easy, in the sense that you could, by extension, consistently blame almost everybody for almost everything. Nothing is anybody's fault because a degree of inherent provocation was applied.

Actions have consequences - the reason why we take those actions, be they nature or nurture are essentially irrelevant in my view.

I've met and dealt with many people experiencing "air-rage". In a majority of cases, they were vile before they boarded, and continued to be so both before, and after the incidents. It was quite normal for them to behave in a manner that most animals would not stoop to. Did the airport/airline environment contribute to their behavior? Possibly to a degree, but not nearly as much as their own character and values in my view.

Of course, many of you may feel differently... :)

[Final 3 Greens]

The UK moral compass is shot.

All you need to understand is the government's wish to exclude the Gurkha veterans.

I moved out 4 years ago and I will never come back.

that's what I think of the UK and air rage is just another manifestation of a society that is rapidly becoming a carbuncle on the ar*e of humanity.

[PAXboy]

I think that TS has it right that the people are bad news before they reach the airport. I see some of them being bad news in the supermarket - so I often shop very late at might (a big 24 hr place down the road from me) to avoid them. With a/c it's such a lottery as to who will be on board. And they don't have to be next to you to ruin the trip.

FSG "The UK moral compass is shot." Yep, that about sums it up. :sad:

[Capot]

Tightslot,

I agree with you; I'm not blaming the way people are treated as the sole reason for air rage.

There will always be those who become enraged at nothing.

But my point was that alcohol is not solely responsible, as many seem to believe, although it can and does exacerbate air rage. Remove alcohol, and there will be fewer cases.

But if you remove many of the reasons people become enraged, encouraged by alcohol or not, it seems to me self-evident that even fewer people will go over the top.

People now, with good reason, are in a suspicious and defensive frame of mind when they arrive at an airport. They just know that they are going to get ripped off, that their intelligence will be insulted by half-trained morons scarcely out of their teens, that they will be lied to, and that there is a high probability of their journey turning into a nightmare. It's not difficult for the airlines, airports and handling agents to put all of that right.

But it would take a sea-change in management philosophy and goals to create the will to put it right, and that isn't going to happen.

I'm one of a horde who now regularly investigate the alternatives for travel intra-UK, UK-Europe, and intra-Europe. And increasingly use them.

I have my Thales card, the best investment I ever made.

[Avman]

People now, with good reason, are in a suspicious and defensive frame of mind when they arrive at an airport. They just know that they are going to get ripped off, that their intelligence will be insulted by half-trained morons scarcely out of their teens, that they will be lied to, and that there is a high probability of their journey turning into a nightmare. It's not difficult for the airlines, airports and handling agents to put all of that right.

Fully agree. But it would require the return of decent salaries, well trained and motivated staff, allowing staff the flexibility of using their discretion and initiative (in providing service to customers in unusual/special circumstances) and, above all, common sense! The down side is that it would lead to increased costs and that would open another can of worms.

[PAXboy]

CapotPeople now, with good reason, are in a suspicious and defensive frame of mind when they arrive at an airport. They just know that they are going to get ripped off, that their intelligence will be insulted by half-trained morons scarcely out of their teens, that they will be lied to, and that there is a high probability of their journey turning into a nightmare.I'm not so sure, whilst I do presume all of those things and prepare myself for them, I think that many folk arrive at check in with the blind assumption that everything is going to flow smoothly, It is the breaking of that false assumption that causes them to lose their temper, with alcohol playing it's part as others have said..

AvmanBut it would require the return of decent salaries, well trained and motivated staff, allowing staff the flexibility of using their discretion and initiative (in providing service to customers in unusual/special circumstances) and, above all, common sense!Ahh, that can be said of almost every single industry and area of commerce - not to mention govt too!

We are not going to get back to that time for a long time. We still have to complete the (pardon the aircraft analogy) crash and burn of the recession/depression - then the period of stabilisation - then we might see some folks trying to gain market share by improved customer service. So it will be many years.

[Capot]

PAXboy, I think you have a very good point there, one I had not thought about. Frustrated disappointment can be a powerful force in driving someone into "red-mist" anger.

Avman, you are also right, but there are some changes that would cost very little, and could perhaps save quite a lot of money. Simple empowerrment of junior staff to do the sensible thing on their own initiative, allied with the much better training that such empowerment calls for, is not a high-cost solution. NB That's "Better", not "Longer and More Expensive".

Indeed, if you cleaned out the Directors and Senior Managers whose only real function is to prevent progress, and replaced them all with a single, competent CEO who understands how to lead people, you could save a fortune.

[PAXboy]

story of a modern airline being turned around is told in:
Continental Airlines from worst to first: The remarkable turnaround story of an American corporation

Whilst it is a tad repetitive, the description of how to take an airline that no one wants to fly and make it a carrier of choice, is clear:
Give the staff a chance to make a difference.
Enable them to communicate with each other.
Make sure the company is function as a complete unit, not a bunch of departments and divisions each striving to do their own thing and ignoring everyone else.
Make the boss available and responsibleIt's just Mgmt 101 but big corporations have lost sight of all that. The only way they get it back is when they lose the business which is usually a bit too late. I enjoyed the book and wait for one of the European legacy carriers to reach the nadir and have to claw their way back. This book will tell them most of what they need to know.

[BetpumpS]

When I read the article, I just knew that it would be South Terminal at Gatwick because that is where the majority of charter/holiday flights are situated for flights to places like Benidorm and the Costa del Sewage. Naturally, these places only attract these unsavoury characters.

I just don't like the pikeyfication of the airline industry because of these low-cost carriers.

I recall reading an excellent piece of literature by Sir Jeremy Clarkson where he commented that even though it is 2am and your plane has been delayed by 6 hours and all the airport shops/restaurants are closed, there is always a pikey family in tracksuits who have somehow managed to find themselves a bag of chips!