Airlines Need a No-Fly List for People Acting a Damn Fool on Planes

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk

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4 min readOct 7, 2021

Photo Illustration: Save As/Medium; Source: Getty Images

In May, a Southwest Airlines flight attendant landed in the hospital after a passenger punched her in the face. According to a representative for Southwest’s flight attendants union, she lost two teeth in the altercation.

One week later, a passenger on a Delta Air Lines flight from Los Angeles to Nashville reportedly tried to breach the cockpit, forcing the plane to divert to New Mexico once the passenger was physically restrained.

I vividly remember learning about both incidents because I’d been flying the latter airline back-and-forth on flights between Los Angeles and Houston around the time they occurred. Unlike many people on my Instagram feeds, I haven’t traveled much during the plague. I felt it was dangerous and — depending on the stage of the pandemic — irresponsible.

Once I realized the government had effectively left us to figure out how to survive the pandemic largely on our own, I decided I couldn’t wait any longer and went along with my life. Delta became my commercial airline of choice, as it was one of the last to continue maintaining social distance measures on flights. That’s now over, but I have another reason to keep boosting my miles with them: They’re ready to ban all of you goofy-ass people who’ve been getting violent at airports and on planes.

Over the summer, in response to calls by flight attendant unions to limit alcohol sales, Southwest and American delayed plans to start selling drinks. More recently, Delta has shifted the conversation by urging airlines to make “no fly” lists for unruly passengers. According to a memo released by the company last month, Delta already has more than 1,600 people on its own “no fly” list.

“We’ve also asked other airlines to share their ‘no fly’ list to further protect airline employees across the industry — something we know is top of mind for you as well,” Kristen Manion Taylor, Delta’s senior vice president of in-flight services, reportedly wrote. “A list of banned customers doesn’t work as well if that customer can fly with another airline.”