Airline bans 2 more fliers for life, wants to create national database of disruptive passengers

We've reported before on Jet2's righteous crusade to permanently ban every rowdy passenger in the air. The UK-based budget airline has made no secret of this policy, publicly threatening to ban people who get drunk on its planes and suing passengers whose disruptions result in flights being diverted. In the last few months, Jet2 has banned a man who smuggled vodka onboard and a 22-year-old woman who flashed the flight crew. The latest batch of undesirables were guilty of both of these offenses and more.

Three unnamed Scottish tourists, two men and a woman, were on a flight from Glasgow to Dalaman when they allegedly became drunk on alcohol they had smuggled aboard. The crew asked them to stop, and were met with a barrage of profane verbal abuse. And once the passengers started, they didn't stop swearing for the rest of the flight. According to Jet2's press release, one of the men:

"sang loudly and danced down the aisle, stripped off his t-shirt and made vulgar sexual gestures, thrusting at a member of the cabin crew and then throughout the cabin, in full view of families with children… When firmly asked to sit down, [he] spat in the face of the senior cabin crew whilst physically blocking the walk-way along with torrents of verbal and threatening abuse."

Obviously, this goes beyond the pale of what any flight crew could be expected to endure. The two men involved were each banned for life, and their female companion was banned for six months. But that's not enough for Jet2. The airline, which has long been plagued by drunk passengers because of its specialization in budget local flights to UK holiday destinations, is using this incident as a call-to-arms. Phil Ward, managing director of Jet2.com, included this manifesto in the press release:

“Aggressive behaviour will simply not be tolerated. Families and friends travelling on any airline should have an enjoyable time from the moment they step on to the aircraft. They should not have to experience aggressive behaviour, nor should our dedicated cabin crew. These are clear examples, indeed some of the worst I have come across, of why we need a national shared database of passengers that have been banned for disruptive behaviour for the airlines to tackle the growing problem together. We will do everything we can to stamp out this industrywide issue through our Onboard Together programme.”

The Onboard Together program is a series of measures Jet2 has taken to educate its passengers about the dangers of getting drunk on a plane, including the danger of being banned for life by Jet2. On the one hand, it's a good idea – passengers need etiquette lessons every once in a while. On the other hand, Jet2 is making sure its battle lines are clearly drawn. And anyone who wants to make trouble on one of Jet2's planes is asking for trouble