[stevescoots]

its typical of todays self centered society. I have no time or pity for people like this. doing business in china its the culture to get out of your skull drunk, but it is correct decorum to do it and not be a total asshat when doing it. If i can do it, why cant others. because they are morons thats why!

[CathayLoyalist2]

stevescoots, this is the result of 20+ years of dare I say a liberal approach to manners, courtesy and which says to people “Don’t worry it’s not your fault someone’s else is responsible” If you challenge people to take and accept responsibility they look at you as if you are on another planet. Then again we mustn’t rebuke them as we will hurt their feelings.

[K1ngston]

AhMrBond, maybe we could all de subdivided and anyone without at least a Amex Platinum can go to the left and the others to the right and depending on that will determine who flies with which airline??

In my line of work, it sometimes suits me to fly LCCs and mainly here in Asia, I have never come across this type of behaviour and as one person said for the number of flights and actual incidents it must be quite rare in any part of the world?

[stevescoots]

completley agree Cathay loyalist

[MartynSinclair]

apart from the odd report I read when in Asia (I think the last one was someone throwing pot noodle over someone else)

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2014-12/15/content_19084651.htm

….incidents such as we read about in Europe, or even just from the UK in isolation are the ones on the rise. After all, cheap airfares on LCC or available on all continents.

So why does it appear endemic within the UK? It doesn’t appear to happen as often anywhere else…

[SimonS1]

Clearly two areas of responsibility.

First the passengers themselves, irresponsible behaviour and incredibly self-centred.

Secondly the airline, for allowing people in that state of inebriation to get on board the plane and the flight to depart.

Sadly neither surprise me. Airlines have been abdicating responsibility for years in many areas including drunken passengers and excessive hand baggage.

[EU_Flyer]

Very interesting topic!

It seems to be a cultural thing. Here in Greece people very rarely get drunk on planes or anywhere in public as it’s considered very anti-social. They may speak for hours at a thousand decibels on their mobiles but rarely get drunk.

In the UK it’s the opposite and excessive drinking and indeed getting drunk seems to be a quite acceptable behavior across all social levels. It’s also easily forgiven for this reason just like it is in countries such as Australia/ NZ from my personal experience.

If you cram people – especially groups of friends going on holiday – into tight spaces for a few hours and offer them booze, why would they say no especially when these people are going on /returning from holiday.

And when airlines make a much larger margin on a can of beer than they do on a seat – why not turn a blind eye?

Ban alcohol and people will complain. Given them alcohol and people get drunk so people complain.

Raise fares to compensate for the loss of alcohol sales and people will complain. Same goes for reducing seat pitch.

The only way LCC carriers can make money is to sell things like booze. And given that we accept / tolerate drunkedness in the UK much more than in other countries, I don’t see things changing.

It’s as English as fish and chips….

[Tom Otley]

BBC News:

Florida flight diverted to Boston because of ‘disruptive’ passenger –

[TominScotland]

I love the reports on this one, highlighting that the cause of the problem is a Glaswegian!! Would location have been mentioned had he been from Leamington Spa or Bournemouth?

Edited to add: Mind you, do any 24 year olds live in Leamington or Bournemouth?

[Charles-P]

I share with others here the view that the major contributing factor is the general decline in manners, respect for others and general politeness in society. The DYKHIA syndrome, we all recognise and have experienced, I once memorably with a minor Belgian TV star in Dubai that was worthy of an Oscar. I feel that among the young social media has played a part because the ability to be incredibly rude without consequence which encourages malapertness.

[esselle]

I often use the term “aggressive resentment” to describe the way in which a growing number of people behave in public; it seems that knowing how to behave has been overtaken by an assumption that it’s acceptable to behave however it suits.

[Charles-P]

“aggressive resentment” – what an excellent description, it encompasses perfectly the attitude so often displayed. My mother (very much old school, was a Deb etc. ) uses the phrase “unpleasantly opinionated” which I have found myself using from time to time.

[canucklad]

Morning Tom,
Sadly when I heard the report this morning on the BBC, it came as no sirprise to me when they tagged the Glasweigan tag onto the story.
Living in the East, I cringe when I hear these reports, and then the invariable attachment to a stereotype.
And alas, on a recent flight to Doha, our Edinburgh calm was broken by a bunch of young men on their way to Bangkok.. To be fair, not the worst by a long shot!

Topically, most of them were wearing the compulsary uniform of a travelling Glasweigan : )

[JohnHarper]

Charles-P – thank you, malapertness is a new word for me. I shall endeavor to find a use for it on a regular basis.

[PeterCoultas]

TominS: great edit to your post

That the origin & “culture” of passengers plays a part is no doubt but it is interesting that many posters essentially also blame airline policies for the increase in bad behaviour: lack of a serious assessment by staff at boarding with unwillingness to block drunk passengers, sale of alcohol on board and failure to prevent it being drunk during the flight, disruptive passengers allowed off (sigh of relief by crew) without action being taken.

[Author]

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