FAA Administrator Steve Dickson prepares to testify during a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee hearing on “Implementing Aviation Safety Reform” on Wednesday, November 3, 2021.
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Federal Aviation Administration chief Steve Dickson on Friday said the agency’s “zero tolerance” policy towards unruly passengers would continue, although reports of bad behavior have declined. last year’s record.
The FAA has established a policy in January 2021 in hopes of stopping a large number of disruptive passengers, threatening fines of up to $35,000 and possible jail time. Flight attendant unions have urged the FAA to step in due to an increase in incidents on board.
“We’ve seen a significant drop in these incidents but they continue to happen at a very high rate,” Dickson said in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” over the past year. “We will maintain our zero-tolerance policy.”
The FAA recorded 5,981 reports of unruly passenger behavior last year, more than 70% of which were caused by passengers refusing to wear masks on board, and has initiated 1,121 investigations. So far this year, it has received 961 reports of disruptive passengers, 635 of whom were forced to wear masks.
Dickson attributed the agency’s public service announcements to helping reduce instances of such behavior.
“I even went to TMZ to make sure we were reaching out to the public and making sure they understood that this behavior was unacceptable on board and it had to stop,” he said.
The Biden administration has extended the mask regulation through April 18 and has not said whether it will lift the regulation after that, despite repeated pleas from airlines to rescind the regulation. .
“From the FAA’s perspective, we have no idea what the public health protocols are,” Dickson said.
The airline’s CEO wrote to President Joe Biden on Wednesday.
Dickson step down March 31 is about half of his five-year term. The Biden administration has not appointed a replacement, leaving the agency without leadership as it faces a rapid return to air travel after two years of pandemic slump and is awaiting a number of reviews. Boeing aircraft.
