Air rage is on the rise, with the International Air Transport Association this week announcing a 16 per cent increase in cases of unruly passengers last year.

Airlines reported 10,854 incidents during 2015, up from 9,316 in 2014 – or one for every 1,205 flights. By comparison there were 5,416 in 1997 and just 1,132 in 1994. The majority involved what the trade group calls “anti-social” behaviour, such as verbal abuse or the refusal to follow the instructions of cabin crew. Physical aggression towards staff members or fellow passengers, or damage to the aircraft, was reported in 11 per cent of cases.

Many would assume alcohol is the main culprit, but drunkenness – usually from drinks purchased and/or consumed before boarding the plane – was identified as a factor in just 23 per cent of incidents.

The global statistics come just weeks after the Civil Aviation Authority, the UK air travel regulator, reported an even sharper rise in cases of air rage on flights involving British airlines. Its data shows that there were 386 dangerous incidents in 2015 – compared with 85 in 2013.

    

IATA did not offer an explanation as to why bad behaviour is on the rise, but said that one challenge it faces to reverse the trend is that many unruly passengers do not face prosecution. It called on more states to ratify the Montreal Protocol 2014, which extends the jurisdiction over an unruly passenger’s offence to the destination country of the flight. So far just six states have done so.

“Unruly and disruptive behaviour is simply not acceptable,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s director general and CEO. “The increase in reported incidents tells us that more effective deterrents are needed. Airlines and airports are guided by core principles developed in 2014 to help prevent and manage such incidents. But we cannot do it alone. That’s why we are encouraging more governments to ratify the Montreal Protocol 2014.”

While its report suggested that 77 per cent of incidents are not due to drunkenness, it also praised the code of practice pioneered in the UK, which sees airport staff trained to serve alcohol responsibly and to avoid special offers that encourage heavy drinking. In July, Lord Ahmad, the new aviation minister, said he was considering stopping airport pubs and restaurants from serving alcohol 24 hours a day in a bid to curb air rage.

The real reason passengers suffer from air rage?

Earlier this year new research into unruly in-flight behaviour suggested that air rage incidents are four times more likely if the plane has premium seating rather than just a single economy-class cabin.

Katy DeCelles, an associate professor of organisational behaviour at the University of Toronto, studied data related to on-board incidents shared by an unnamed major airline and found a strong correlation between class divide and passenger misbehaviour.

DeCelles compared flights that had separate first and economy class with those that did not, as well as planes that boarded from the front – so that economy passengers have to walk through what they are missing out on – with those that boarded from the back or centre.

She also looked at other possible triggers, including leg room, seat width, delays, flight length and cabin space.

The report found that the existence of a first-class cabin made an incident four times more likely, while loading from the front doubled the odds of air rage over boarding from the middle. Bizarrely, the effect was even more pronounced among first class passengers who, when having economy class passengers walk through their section, were 12 times more likely to indulge in air rage.

The report said that first class passengers were more likely to behave in a disruptive manner as being reminded of their superiority “prompts negative emotions” and “triggers entitled behaviour”. This is certainly supported by the catalogue of incidents provided by angry airborne celebrities.

DeCelles said that the type of behaviour also differs according to which section of the plane the passenger is sat.

“In first class you have passengers getting upset relating to issues of alcohol and anger,” said Decelles. “In economy, it’s more common to have people who have emotional outbursts like panic attacks or fear.”

It is worth noting that long-haul flights are more likely to have a first class cabin, whereas many short-haul flights will not, so the correlation between the class divide may also be linked to the length of flight as well, with passengers more likely to behave poorly when spending hours in a cabin.