- The Federal Aviation Administration chief Steve Dickson stated that the agency’s “zero tolerance” policy toward unruly passengers would continue, even though reports of bad behavior have declined from last year’s record, reported CNBC.
- The policy was established in January 2021 by the FAA in hopes of containing a surge of disruptive passengers, threatening fines of up to $35,000 and possible jail time.
- Dickson, in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box, said, “We have seen over the last year a significant decline in these incidents, but they continue to occur at too high of a rate. We will be keeping the zero-tolerance policy in place.”
- In 2021, the FAA logged 5,981 reports of unruly passenger behavior, with more than 70% tied to passengers who refused to wear masks on board. For 2022 the FAA has received 961 reports of disruptive passengers so far, 635 of them linked to the mask mandate.
- The Biden administration has extended the mask mandate through April 18 and provided no information on whether it would lift the rule then.
- The mask mandate and pre-departure COVID tests for international travelers “are no longer aligned with the realities of the current epidemiological environment,” the report quoted a letter from airline CEOs to President Joe Biden.
