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The Trump administration is appealing for more dignity from the flying public, bringing up a subject also affecting aviation in Australia.
The US Department of Transportation has released a video contrasting the manners, poise and dress of passengers in the 1960s with the poor manners, on-board confrontations and slovenly dress of passengers today. In the video, US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy says: “Manners don’t stop at the gate. Things aren’t what they used to be.
“Some would call it the golden age of travel,” Duffy said, to images of an idealised travelling past, including men in suits and women wearing hats and gloves.
The video then shows a person scrolling their in-flight entertainment screen with their bare feet, fist-fights in terminals, and passenger confrontations on planes. “Let’s bring civility and manners back … Ask yourself, are you helping a pregnant woman put her bag in the overhead bin? Are you dressing with respect?”
Passenger behaviour and dress has deteriorated in recent years – both in the US and globally – driven by a combination of factors: frustration with poor customer service from airlines, low-cost carriers making travel more widely available, and heightened post-COVID customer expectations amid elevated prices.
Australia has not been immune from the trend, with police frequently being called to arrest passengers upon arrival, or to prevent disorderly passengers from boarding.
The issue of unruly customer behaviour has become a major topic for airlines, regulators and police.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority issues aviation infringement notices for a variety of behaviours. From January to June of this year, it issued 68 AINs, 39 of which were for “disorderly or disruptive passengers”.
In the 2024-25 financial year, the AFP charged 1245 people with 1511 offences which include matters like “unruly, anti-social or violent behaviour”, up from 1314 the previous year.
