Dutch carrier KLM has seen a huge increase in bad behavior onboard since the pandemic and now is pushing a collaboration with the Dutch government and other Dutch carriers to create a nationwide no-fly list.
KLM Proposes Nationwide No-Fly List Among Dutch Carriers
Since 2019, KLM has seen a 100% increase in unruly passenger numbers, including this year in an era in which masks are no longer obligatory onboard or in airports. Most of the incidents occur onboard and most are alcohol-related:
- An average of 30 unruly passengers a month were recorded in 2023, compared to an average of 15 in 2019
- Around 60% of the incidents took place on board, with 40% in the departure hall
- In more than half of these cases, alcohol played a role
To combat this growing problem, KLM has proposed a nationwide flight ban. Passengers who act poorly on one Dutch carrier would be banned from other Dutch carriers. While KLM would like this flight ban to proceed beyond Dutch borders, privacy laws make even a nationwide ban an issue of controversy.
KLM and its low-cost arm Transavia already share information: passengers are banned from flying with either airline at least for five years if they misbehave on a Transavia or KLM flight.
Now, the Dutch government, including the Royal Marechaussee and the public prosecutor’s office, along with Transavia, KLM, TUI, and Corendon Dutch Airlines have signed a letter of intent to explore a unified no-fly list.
I’ve explained why I am against multi-airline flight bans for passengers who are deemed to be disorderly. That said, if these problems continue some sort of information-sharing strikes me as reasonable.
> Read More: Delta’s Misguided Effort to Create New No-Fly List
> Read More: Delta Wants To Collude With Other Airlines To Ban “Bad” Passengers – Why I’m Against It
CONCLUSION
KLM and other Dutch airlines, along with two key Dutch government offices, have signed a letter of intent to explore a more unified no-fly list. It is not clear whether this will go into effect due to privacy concerns, but it marks the first step in that process.
(image: KLM // Hat Tip: PYOK)
Looks like a huge inconvenience for those affected. They will be having sleepless nights trying to decide whether to drive across the border to DUS or buy a Brussels Airlines ticket which includes the train to/from Zaventem.
Dutch companies and institutions really are masters of empty virtue signalling.
The inconvenience for the bad actors placed on the list is usually well-deserved . The unfortunate FAs who deal with boorish fool passengers are the innocent ones .
If you really think that proposal could cause any meaningful inconvenience, you clearly have missed the point of my comment.
If you trust the government and think it is never wrong, you probably support this. If you don’t trust the government, realizing that individual leaders whether Geert Wilders or Milei don’t control the bureaucrat class, you probably oppose this. Bans like this are never a good idea because it gives individual flight attendants too much power to penalize someone who complains of poor service. These bans rarely have an appeal mechanism or allow for a trial or adjudication. Some people also have bad days due to a medication mix up or medical issue and bans handed out like Candy are excessive. We probably trust actual Dutch flight attendants to be fair and sensible than pseudo American flight attendants but it’s still a bad policy. It’s one thing for one airline to ban for a certain number of years. For airlines to pool together with the help of the government to impede and ban travel is in 1984 territory.
Your argument is a perfect example of why the world has gone off the rails, thanks to phony libertarian grievances like this.
Exactly. I couldn’t have said it better myself. This is catastrophically bad idea on so many levels …
There needs to be a scale for what truly constitutes a flight disruption by an unruly passenger, as a one size fits all solution will be problematic, difficult to manage, and create operational and administrative issues for the airlines, however, a no-fly list not only makes sense, it is necessary to try and curb these incidents and the airlines have every right to claw back money to cover diversions, accommodations, and other expenses that these incidents create. The ultimate penalty is a lifetime ban for extreme cases.
This isn’t a Dutch issue. It is a worldwide problem.
You don’t support this because you’re worried you’ll be on the list?
Me? Certainly not.
Have you ever been thrown off a flight?
I have. And UA apologized for it.
DL came on board a flight and forced me off the plane because they weren’t happy that they had issued me a boarding pass and boarded me on a ticket that they thought was more restricted after I had boarded then when they had checked me in and boarded me. I got off but did so without cabin baggage and then I told them I am not going back on the plane to get cabin baggage unless they fly me on the flight. They let me back on the flight because important people didn’t want to be late and DL didn’t want to have all the people get off the plane with all their own cabin baggage in order to find any cabin baggage that may be mine. Delta apologized to me soon thereafter.
Illegal behavior should be punished in a court of law with a fair and open trial that comes with sentences that are entirely within guidelines set by the legislative branch.
Administrative punishments — those in the absence of a criminal conviction as mentioned above — of the sort suggested by KLM should be opposed by all people who care about civil liberties and the risk of people being subject to wrongful and inconsistent actions by airline employees and administrative actors who tend to be biased in favor of corporate actors and against individuals.
Given how FAs and gate agents engage in unprofessional conduct against passengers, I am wary about such a list. If there were such a list, Matthew could be on it, placed by a United FA because of false accusations which resulted in him being kicked off the plane.
The airline blacklist can be circumvented by using a passport in a different name than that which the airline has used to blacklist a person. So the average blacklisted person can pursue a name change or name adjustment of some sort and get themselves around the airline blacklist that way.
Looks like I have to boycott KLM (as well) in the near future.
I am sure they will be devastated to hear this news
“Half of the incidents were alcohol related.” This does not surprise me, but with 60% on board perhaps the Dutch carriers should also question their own involvement in this problem. Bad actors should be accountable, but it will not stop future incidents.
Transavia and the TUIs of this world obviously charge for alcohol onboard, so there’s certainly some conflict of interest.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. While I’m generally amenable to the concept of a no-fly list, this is a terrible idea without adequate safeguards, which don’t exist in any of these proposals I’ve seen. Inevitably, you’re going to end up with someone wrongly added to a list because of a power-tripping airline employee. If such a system existed in the US, I could totally see the FA who kicked you off that flight for taking a photo getting you added to the list as an example, and you’d essentially have no recourse to appeal. Just look at the ordeal that people wrongly added to the terrorism watch list have to go through to get off.
My compromise has been to make an addition to a no-fly list conditioned on a final adjudication in a criminal proceeding (either guilty verdict or guilty/no-contest plea related to disorderly conduct on a flight). Or set up a system where accused passengers are entitled to a hearing with appeal procedures like with civil tax disputes (which will never happen because of the cost involved). If an airline doesn’t care enough about the c0nduct to pursue criminal charges or an administrative hearing, sorry, they don’t get to effectively ban that person from traveling.
The KM/Dutch border control flagged me down as some kind of Baltic mafia mob boss based on a government blacklist they use and their incompetence with typing into their keyboards. [The only times I have been to the Baltic Republics have been when there are major international government meetings there — like the NATO meeting in Lithuania this year.] So no surprise that I have little confidence in the use of no-fly blacklists against people otherwise free to move about.
DUH. Over half of these incidents involves alcohol! Yes, flying is stressful, but how about relieving some of the stress, crowding being the primary, along with unintelligible announcements, ridiculous misc fees, too much luggage in the cabin and eliminating excessive alcohol service. And yes, anyone involved in a serious incident should be banned from all carriers for several years.
Another bad joke. Many FAs are power tripping and burnt out in auto pilot/robotic modes. Where’s the appeals processes and scrutiny of this draconian “democracy” regime nonsense?