Why Is There So Much Air Rage?
By CNT Editors. Photos: Getty.
Before we taped this week's Travelogue podcast, we did a quick search of stories we'd written in the last six months on the topic of "air rage" (we also looked up "fight," "bad behavior," and "rant" in our system). About a dozen pieces came back, each a spike in our collective blood pressure. Did you know that, post-Brexit, "Air Rage in the U.K. Is at an All-Time High"? Same holds true around the world: "Bad Behavior On Planes Is Getting Worse," reported the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in 2016. And shortly after the U.S. presidential election in November, there were more headline-making cases of airlines shushing—and in some cases, banning—passengers for their politics, be it an in-flight rant calling out all the "Hillary b*tches" on board or the shaming of a Trump supporter. In one case, Ivanka Trump was harassed by a fellow flier who demanded to know why she was flying commercial (the passenger was ultimately removed from the plane). Hear the complete podcast here.
In short: Tension is high in the sky. Even just walking through first class can make passengers angry—yes, there's science to back it up. But what is it about being crammed into a plane with strangers at 35,000 feet that brings out the worst in us? And who's responsible for policing the bad behavior, anyway? The actual police on the ground? The pilot? Flight attendants? Fellow passengers? Federal authorities? In our podcast, Traveler's Brad Rickman, Laura Redman, Katherine LaGrave, and Mark Ellwood get fired up about anger management—and whether they'd own up to any in-flight spats themselves—with podcast engineer/wizard Brett Fuchs keeping everyone under control. Check back every Friday for our latest installment of Travelogue. To keep up with our podcast each week, subscribe to Travelogue on the iTunes store or the podcasting app of your choice.
This story originally appeared on Conde Nast Traveler.
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