Cyprus Airways ponders air rage response in wake of passenger ‘hijack’

By Jean Christou

CYPRUS Airways is looking at measures to combat air rage following Saturday’s Athens airport passenger ‘hijacking’ of a Paphos-bound flight, the airline’s chairman Haris Loizides said yesterday.

“We are studying the incident and gathering evidence from the crew, and we will decide when we have a clear picture of the behaviour of various passengers,” Loizides said.

Angry Cypriot passengers clashed with police and airport officials in Athens in the early hours of Saturday an attempt to stop a Paphos-bound flight being diverted to Larnaca, its final destination.

The Airbus A310 had undergone two hours of repair after a high loader servicing the plane damaged the luggage compartment. The pilot, in consultation with a Greek engineer, deemed it safer to take the plane directly to Larnaca.

Paphos passengers, who were told by the company they would be transported from Larnaca by bus, became angry and tried to prevent the plane from leaving, delaying departure by another three hours until 5am.

CY said some of the passengers surrounded the plane, blocked the entrance and insulted the Greek engineer before about 70 of the 240 people on board opted to remain at an Athens hotel for the night at company expense.

“If this had happened on British Airways or KLM, or any other company other than Cyprus Airways, do you think these Cypriot passengers would have reacted in this way?” said Loizides.

“They would have accepted the crew’s directions and would have acknowledged the fact that the captain was doing his job well. But because it was a Cyprus Airways flight they all tried to look like experts on the issue.”

Loizides said the International Airline Transport Association (IATA) was closely monitoring the increasing number of incidents of air rage.

The airline’s get-tough attitude contrasts with its laissez-faire reaction when a flight had to be diverted to Athens after a drunken passenger groped a stewardess in May. Greek police offered to arrest the passenger on landing, but Cyprus Airways declined to press charges, saying it was content simply to get the man off the plane and didn’t want to take the matter further.

Though CY says it has fewer air rage incidents than other airlines, the last year has seen a steady increase of incidents involving abusive passengers and people who refuse to comply with no smoking bans.

“There are passengers who create trouble on flights and there has been an increase recently, not the same type of incident (as on Saturday), but passengers under the influence of alcohol attacking other passengers or crew,” Loizides said.

“This problem is being closely followed by IATA, which is studying measures for tackling the problem, because at 30,000 feet the possibility of restraint is difficult.”