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Since September 29, KLM and Transavia have been sharing data on passengers who have been placed on the No Fly list due to inadmissible behavior on board or on the ground. Passengers will receive a five-year flight ban with both airlines if they misbehave on a Transavia or KLM flight. This makes KLM and Transavia the first airlines worldwide to exchange passenger data for the No Fly List. The airlines also call on politicians and (international) policy makers to make it possible to exchange data about these people with other airlines.

By extending a flight ban at Transavia to KLM and vice versa, the scope of the measures taken will be increased. A passenger who flies with a KLM or Transavia ticket and is placed on the 'No Fly List' has less chance of endangering flight safety with the other airline again. This should contribute to increasing flight safety. In addition, these measures have a preventive effect.

“It is urgent to take this measure. Safety on board has the highest priority. The consequences of misbehaving passengers are serious; this has a major impact on our passengers and our own employees. Any form of physical violence towards our crew or fellow passengers is unacceptable. In addition, it causes delays, which is very annoying for passengers and means high costs for airlines”.

“We stand for our people and also for our passengers and safety on board is always paramount. If there are persons on board who exhibit inadmissible behavior, a very threatening situation arises in such a small space. Whether it concerns physical violence or the sharing of threatening images via, for example, Airdrop. We see this happening more often, most recently on a flight to Croatia. What may be referred to as a "joke" is causing great unrest among passengers, including children. And this behavior is also unacceptable for our own crew. Not being able to fly for five years with both Transavia and KLM is a strong signal and does justice to the unsafe situation caused by such a passenger”.

Growth reports inadmissible behavior

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Inadmissible behavior on board is a growing problem. In times of corona, the number of reports of this behavior on board grew. At KLM there are an average of 5 reports per month of inadmissible behavior whereby passengers are banned from flying, at Transavia this is on average once a month. Although the number of reports fell after corona, the airlines are now seeing an increase again. This high-altitude behavior has a major impact on both passengers and crew on board the aircraft.

Complex regulations

KLM and Transavia had to intensively investigate how the blacklists can be shared with each other in the right way. This process has taken a long time because the airlines, even though they are part of the same group, encountered complex and sometimes unclear regulations. Nevertheless, both airlines have managed to align policies and processes in such a way that it is possible to share this data, while respecting all existing privacy regulations. With these measures, a first step has now been taken towards sharing data from 'No Fly lists'. The challenge now is how this can be taken further in the Netherlands and perhaps also in Europe.

Call to politics and authorities

Due to the increasing number of incidents and their seriousness and impact, Transavia and KLM are advocating to investigate whether airlines can share more data with each other to promote flight safety. They therefore first of all call on politicians and authorities to create more (legal) options for airlines so that they can exchange information about 'No Fly Lists', at least within national borders. 

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In the long term, efforts should be made towards international regulations and harmonization. After all, problems relating to unacceptable behavior by passengers transcend airlines and national borders and are of great importance for further improving aviation safety. However, in many countries regulations are not present or are so fragmented that sharing information that can promote flight safety is not possible at all. KLM.

Photo above: Andre Muller/ Shutterstock.com.

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