Some Australians woke up to the shocking news on Monday morning their airlines had banned carry-on. However, they soon realized (much to their relief) the ban applied to bad inflight behavior rather than the oversized and overweight bags many passengers like to stuff into overhead lockers.
Rival airlines Virgin Australia, Regional Express (Rex), Qantas, and Jetstar, have joined forces with the Australian Federal Police and Civil Aviation Safety Authority to launch the “No More Carry On” campaign that targets bad inflight behavior over the busy Australian summer flying season.
Because carry-on is a term that applies to both onboard luggage and bad behavior, the collective brains trust behind the campaign thought the potential confusion would get some attention – and that strategy seems to have worked.
“This initiative aims to educate those working in and traveling through major airports about what behavior is appropriate. The AFP has zero-tolerance for any dangerous or antisocial behavior and works tirelessly to ensure the safety of the traveling community,” said Andrea Quinn, Acting Assistant Commissioner at the Australia Federal Police.
Bad behavior is on the rise as flights increase
After a slow second half of 2021, Australia’s airlines are getting back to business. Qantas and Jetstar expect to be flying about 75% of their pre-COVID domestic operations by December. This will rise to more than 100% in February 2022.
Virgin Australia has launched 15 new domestic routes since September, the most in the airline’s 21-year history, and is eyeing further route launches. Regional Express has all of its jets back in the air and has just commenced two new services into Brisbane.
“Domestically, our capacity fell to around 3o% of pre-COVID levels for several months,” said Qantas CEO Alan Joyce last week. “Domestic demand has started to pick up again, and we’re expecting a strong performance over the Christmas period and continued strength into early next year.”
With more planes in the skies and passenger numbers recovering, new rules such as mandatory mask regimes in aircraft and airports apparently are not always going down well.
In a two-minute clip available online to mark the No More Carry On campaign, frontline employees at four of Australia’s best-known domestic airlines make a plea to passengers to abide by the rules and give airline staff a fair go.
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A tiny misbehaving minority capture all the attention
News Limited publications on Monday are citing an example of a passenger ripping the ID off a crew member’s shirt after that passenger was asked to wear a face mask correctly. The same publications say airline staff are seeing a rise in bad passenger behavior. Much of that bad behavior concerns the wearing of face masks.
“While the vast majority of passengers do the right thing, unfortunately as with the hospitality and retail industries, we have seen an increase in the number of people behaving badly,” said Jetstar CEO Gareth Evans. ”At airports and on aircraft, critical safety procedures must be followed. There is no room for disruptive behavior and we will act quickly to stop unruliness to ensure everyone remains safe.”
That’s perhaps surprising given how willingly most Australians have toed the line this year. The vast majority have abided by often draconian lockdown, check-in, and mask-wearing rules. On all of this writer’s recent flights, people have generally been good regarding mask-wearing. But often, it is the tiny minority to capture all of the attention.
“Passengers need to understand that bad behavior on an aircraft can put safety at risk,” CASA’s Pip Spence told News Limited. “It can disrupt the important safety duties of aircraft crew members, cause distractions during critical phases of flight and jeopardize the safety of other passengers.”
As for a crackdown on the stupid amounts of carry-on luggage many people try to get onboard, particularly when traveling on cheap tickets on low-cost carriers – that couldn’t come soon enough.
