Passenger Behaviour

Robert Bor

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9781351912709
• Topic: Tecnología e ingeniería
• Subtopic: Ingeniería mecánica

With 2003 being the 100th anniversary of modern aviation, Passenger Behaviour was published at a milestone for the aviation industry. Remarkable achievements in engineering have made air travel highly accessible within the span of a single lifetime. However, when evolutionary barriers are exceeded various penalties are exacted. The most common experienced by air passengers include motion sickness, jetlag and increased arousal and stress at different stages of flight. Air travel also brings us into closer contact with strangers, making our examination and understanding of the social psychology of behaviour within groups (among passengers) especially relevant. This book examines a wide range of topics that help the reader to acquire a psychological understanding of how air travel impacts on human relationships; behaviour as well as physiological functions. Written by leading authorities in their areas, it is intended primarily for those with an interest in passenger behaviour and those who work professionally in commercial aviation. This includes pilots, cabin crew, ground staff, airline and airport managers, aviation psychologists, human factors specialists, aerospace medical/nursing personnel and aircraft designers and manufacturers. As air travel being an integral part of most people's lives, this book will also be of interest to anyone who travels either on a frequent or infrequent basis.

Chapter 1

Legal Aspects of Passenger Behaviour

Glenvil Smith

‘Why should I “behave”? I’ve paid my (extortionate) fare to the airline, am headed off on business and I can do what I please on the flight! Or can I?’

Fortunately for the rest of us, he can’t. Not only do criminal sanctions regulate whole areas of passenger behaviour but an airline’s Conditions of Contract and General Conditions of Carriage for Passengers and Baggage govern the contractual relationship between an airline and its passengers, and these have a good deal to say on what a passenger may and may not do. There is also the theoretical possibility of a potential claim being brought directly by fellow passengers if damage (in its widest sense) is caused to others.

Article 17 of the Chicago Convention of 1944 states that ‘Aircraft have the nationality of the State in which they are registered’ with Article 18 preventing dual registration (the former Concorde service from London-Heathrow to Dallas, Texas via Washington, DC involved de-registration of the aircraft from the British register and re-registration onto the U.S. register (or vice versa) every time the flight transited Washington). Accordingly, there can be no ambiguity as to ‘whose law’ governs in-flight behaviour, although as most nations have ascribed to various international conventions, a wide measure of uniformity exists worldwide. In the case of a UK registered aircraft, the Carriage by Air Act 1961 – which imports into English law the Warsaw Convention 1929 as amended at the Hague in 1955, but which is shortly to be updated by the implementation of the Montreal Convention 1999 – applies, together with various EU Directives and Regulations, although these tend to deal more with ‘passengers’ rights’ and ‘carrier’s obligations’.

In order to protect civil aviation from anti-social (or worse) passenger behaviour, the Tokyo Convention 1963 governs ‘offences against penal law’ or ‘acts which, whether or not they are offences, may or do jeopardise the safety of the aircraft or of persons or property therein or which jeopardise good order and discipline on board’ and which are committed on board aircraft registered in contracting states. The Tokyo Convention forms the bedrock of legislative protection across the world devolving, in accordance with Article 3(1), jurisdiction over offences and acts committed on board to the state of registration. Article 6 permits the aircraft commander, when he has reasonable grounds to believe that a person has committed, or is about to commit, such an offence or act on board the aircraft to use:

reasonable measures including restraint which are necessary:

(a) to protect the safety of the aircraft, or of persons or property therein; or

(b) to maintain good order and discipline on board; or

(c) to enable him to deliver such person to the competent authorities or to disembark him.

Fortunately for the commander (and his or her crew), the aircraft owner, operator, any charterer and indeed any passenger who gets involved, Article 10 exonerates all from responsibility for the ‘treatment undergone by the person against whom the action was taken’ under the Convention. A rare bit of ‘carte blanche’ indeed!

The principles of the Tokyo Convention and the later Hague Convention of 1970 (which is primarily directed against the unlawful seizure of aircraft) are imported into English law as regards British registered aircraft through sections 91,92 and 94 of the Civil Aviation Act 1982 and are bolstered by the Aviation Security Act 1982 and the Aviation and Maritime Security Act 1990. Extra-territorial jurisdiction is claimed by virtue of the important Civil Aviation (Amendment) Act 1996, covering any ‘act or omission which takes place on a board a foreign aircraft … where … the next landing of the aircraft is in the United Kingdom and [if] the act or omission would, if taking place [in the country of registration of the aircraft] also constitute an offence under the law in force in that country’.

Day-to-day regulation of British registered aircraft (and passengers travelling in them) is to be found in the Air Navigation Order 2000 and related instruments. This Order (which is likely to have a near equivalent in most other countries) includes provisions such as:

63. A person shall not recklessly or negligently act in a manner likely to endanger an aircraft, or any person therein.

64. A person shall not recklessly or negligently cause or permit an aircraft to endanger any person or property.

65. A person shall not enter any aircraft when drunk, or be drunk in any aircraft.

66(2). A person shall not smoke in any compartment of an aircraft registered in the United Kingdom at a time when smoking is prohibited in that compartment by a notice to that effect exhibited by or on behalf of the commander of the aircraft.

67. Every person in an aircraft shall obey all lawful commands which the commander of that aircraft may give for the purpose of securing the safety of the aircraft and of persons or property carried therein, or the safety, efficiency or regularity of air navigation.

68. No person shall while in an aircraft:

(a) use any threatening, abusive or insulting words towards a member of the crew of the aircraft;

(b) behave in a threatening, abusive, insulting or disorderly manner towards a member of the crew of the aircraft; or

(c) intentionally interfere with the performance by a member of the crew of the aircraft of his duties.

The above provisions obviously give the airline, and the applicable authorities, a fairly broad armoury in case of need. Criminal penalties (from fines to imprisonment) apply to anyone who is shown to have broken any of these stipulations.

As regards the civil law of contract, almost all international carriers worldwide have adopted IATA Resolution 724 (‘Passenger Ticket – Notices and Conditions of Contract’): most feature the standard ‘Eleven Conditions’ printed on their own form of tickets (or e-tickets) and/or IATA travel agents’ neutral ticketing stock. Within Standard Condition 3, the passenger is advised that, amongst other things, his contract of carriage by air is subject to ‘carrier’s conditions of carriage and related regulations which are made part hereof (and are available on application at the offices of carrier) …’, which means that a passenger is bound by each carrier’s published General Conditions of Carriage.

Carriers all have their own set of General Conditions, but are likely broadly to follow another IATA Resolution, RRP 1724, which is expressed as ‘Recommended Practice’ and which is therefore up to any carrier to adopt, or amend in whole or in part. Articles of particular interest here are Art. 7 (‘Refusal and Limitation of Carriage’) and Art. 11 (‘Conduct aboard Aircraft’) and specimen parts of these are reproduced in full at the foot of this chapter. Whilst RRP 1724 has recently been amended after ‘discussions’ with consumer bodies across the world to be ‘fairer’ and more ‘user friendly’ to passengers, even in their current form it provides an airline with a useful, and specific, course of dealing with obstreperous travellers.

Box 1.1 Specimen parts of IATA Resolution, RRP 1724

1.1.1 RIGHT TO REFUSE CARRIAGE

1.1.2 In the reasonable exercise of our discretion, we may refuse to carry you or your Baggage if we have notified you in writing that we would not at any time after the date of such notice carry you on our flights. You will not be entitled to a refund for any Tickets purchased by you or on your behalf following such notice being given.

1.1.3 We may also refuse to carry you or your Baggage if one or more of the following have occurred or we reasonably believe may occur:

1.1.3.1 such action is necessary in order to comply with any applicable government laws, regulations, or orders;

1.1.3.2 the carriage of you or your Baggage may endanger or affect the safety, health, or materially affect the comfort of other passengers or crew;

1.1.3.3 your mental or physical state or attitude or demeanour, including your impairment from alcohol or drugs, presents a hazard or risk to yourself, to passengers, to crew, or to property;

1.1.3.4 you have committed misconduct on a previous flight, and we have reason to believe that such conduct may be repeated;

1.1.3.5 you have refused to submit to a security check;

1.1.3.6 you have not paid the applicable fare, taxes, fees or charges;

1.1.3.7 you owe us any money in respect of a previous flight owing to payment having been dishonoured, denied or recharged against us;

1.1.3.8 you do not appear to have valid travel documents, may seek to enter a country through which you may be in transit, or for which you do not have valid travel documents, destroy your travel documents during flight or refuse to surrender your travel documents to the flight crew, against receipt, when so requested;

1.1.3.9 you cannot prove that you are the person named in the Ticket;

1.1.3.10 you have failed to comply with the requirements set forth in Article 3.3 above concerning coupon sequence and use;

1.1.3.11 you fail to observe our instructions with respect to safety or security;

If we have, in the reasonable exercise of our discretion under this Article 7.1.2 refused to carry you on the basis of any of the above, or have removed you en route, we may cancel the remaining unused portion of your Ticket and you will not be entitled to further carriage or to a refund in respect of the sector(s) covered by the Ticket. We will not be liable for any consequential loss or damage alleged due to any such refusal to carry or removal en route.

11.1 GENERAL

If, in our reasonable opinion, you conduct yourself aboard the aircraft so as to endanger the aircraft or any person or property on board, or obstruct the crew in the performance of their duties, or fail to comply with any instructions of the crew including but not limited to those with respect to smoking, alcohol or drug consumption, or behave in a manner which causes discomfort, inconvenience, damage or injury to other passengers or the crew, we may take such measures as we deem reasonably necessary to prevent continuation of such conduct, including restraint. You may be disembarked and refused onward carriage at any point, and may be prosecuted for offences committed on board the aircraft.

It is indeed quite possible, as a matter of contract, for an airline to declare to a passenger, in specified circumstances, ‘Please never travel with us again’. Each airline has its own policy for ‘policing’ passengers who have been considered unruly. British Airways and Cathay Pacific have both had to deal with rampaging members of pop groups and have banned them from flying again with their airline. More formally, KLM has introduced a ‘Watchlist on Unruly Passengers’ which is linked to their worldwide reservations system; this is sub-divided into a ‘No Fly’ (in cases of previous ‘gross misconduct’) and ‘Selectee’ (where further flights may be permitted subject to certain conditions). KLM has stressed that passengers only go on these lists on the grounds of clear reports subm...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Boxes and Tables
• List of Figures
• List of Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Legal Aspects of Passenger Behaviour
• 2 Flying-related Stress
• 3 The Evolution of the Airline Industry and Impact on Passenger Behaviour
• 4 Just Plane Scared? An Overview of Fear of Flying
• 5 Psychological and Psychiatric Difficulties among Airline Passengers
• 6 Air Travel and the Implications for Relationships
• 7 Homesickness and Air Travel
• 8 Air Rage Post-9/11
• 9 Passenger Attention to Safety Information
• 10 Passenger Behaviour in Emergency Situations
• 11 The Psychological Impact of Aircraft Disasters
• 12 Hostage Behaviour in Aircraft Hijacking: A Script-based Analysis of Resistance Strategies
• 13 Physiology of Flying: Effects and Consequences of the Cabin Environment
• 14 Health and Illness among Airline Passengers
• 15 Long-haul Flights, Travel Fatigue and Jet Lag
• 16 Appetite and In-flight Catering
• 17 Sex and International Travel: Behaviour, Health and Human Rights
• 18 Civil Aviation?
• Index