How to avoid getting caught up in 'air rage'

HEY JUST KEEP coming: 'air rage' incidents, like the fist fight videos on planes that go viral every few months. Just this year, a passenger spit on a woman; another threatened to crash a plane midflight and Ryanair instituted a fine—500 pounds (about $675) in Britain, 500 euros (about $583) in Europe—for those offloaded from flights for causing trouble.

- LAURA ZORNOSA

It's a problem that peaked during the early part of the pandemic but hasn't gone away. The Federal Aviation Administration reported a nearly sixfold rise in unruly passenger incidents to 5,973 in 2021, as flights were beginning to take off again. Since then, reports have dropped; there were 2,102 in 2024, but they have yet to return to prepandemic levels.

Experts on air rage attribute the broad increase to a shift in social norms since at least the start of the pandemic, and add that the airline industry's tight margins following losses during the pandemic add a systemic pressure that trickles down to individuals in the aisles. Passenger comfort is a lower priority, said Dr. Alison Vredenburgh, an industrial-organizational psychologist, who called the situation a perfect storm. Since a systemwide revamp of air travel is a long way off, here are tips on how to keep from having a meltdown that might be captured in the next viral video.

Know the warning signs