Strong signal for employee safety
vida welcomes new package of measures in dealing with recalcitrant passengers.
Aviation
On 24 June, Infrastructure Minister Peter Hanke and representatives of the domestic aviation industry signed a declaration in Vienna on clear rules for dealing with recalcitrant passengers. "Especially before the start of the peak travel season, this is an important sign for the safety of all employees in aviation and also for passengers," welcomes Daniel Liebhart, chairman of the aviation department in the trade union vida, and affirms: "Safety must always come first in aviation."
"Safety must always come first in aviation. Especially before the start of the peak travel season, the declaration is an important sign for the safety of all employees in the industry and for passengers."
Safety on board
The recent increases in rioting passengers are worrying. The cabin crew must take care of safety on board and must not be distracted from their primary tasks by unruly, drunk or drugged passengers, according to vida trade unionist Daniel Liebhart. This also applies to ground and security staff at airports, who are also increasingly prevented from their actual tasks by so-called "unruly passengers". However, the trade union vida also expects comprehensive protection and hazard compensation measures from the companies themselves, such as a hazard allowance in the collective agreement, Liebhart emphasizes.
No tolerance
With a declaration on the "unruly passengers", the Ministry of Infrastructure, Austro Control, the airlines Austrian, Ryanair, Wizz, easyJet and Peoples as well as the airports of Vienna, Graz, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Klagenfurt and Linz have agreed on strong support for flight and ground staff and on zero tolerance for escalation. To this end, there will also be a permanent task force under the leadership of the ministry and ongoing evaluations of the measures.
Increasing incidents
According to Vienna Airport, from the beginning of January to the end of May alone, there were 233 incidents with passengers who defied orders from airport staff. Austrian stated that the number of cases with "unruly passengers" at the airline had almost doubled by 98.4 percent from 2019 to 2024; In 2024, there were 588 cases and from January to May 2025, 237 cases were reported. Austrian Airlines offers sanctions against rioting passengers range from written warnings to exclusions from flights to booking bans of up to five years.