Delta Air Lines is continuing its push for a federal "no-fly " list as unruly passenger reports continue.Travel analyst Henry Harteveldt told Insider that the list is doable, but the process would be long and complicated.
After a turbulent year of unruly passengers on hundreds of US flights, the US is considering creating a national "no-fly" list.
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On Monday, he doubled down, telling Good Morning America that "actions have consequences."
"Any individual that's disruptive aboard an airplane, that gets in the way of customer and employee safety needs to be addressed at the highest possible level," he said.
Delta first called for a no-fly list in a memo to employees in September and has since asked other
The airlines, the Airlines for America trade group, and US government entities have held meetings in recent months about the possibility of implementing the list system, Bloomberg reported, but no agreements have yet been reached.
According to Bloomberg, Delta has added nearly 1,900 names to its internal no-fly list for mask-related incidents and has sent 900 of those names to the
The request for a national no-fly list comes after the Federal Aviation Administration received nearly 6,0000 unruly passenger reports in 2021, with about 4,300 of those relating to mask requirements. However, the question is how the list would be created and implemented.
Henry Harteveldt, travel analyst and president of Atmosphere Research Group, told Insider the process would be long and complicated but is still doable.
"We're talking about a very sensitive matter, and there are a lot of parties involved and a lot of scenarios to consider," he said. "I don't expect this to happen overnight, but I do hope it happens and happens as swiftly as it possibly can."
Harteveldt emphasized that one important thing that the government must determine is what behavior qualifies as unruly.
"Some of it is obvious, like physical or verbal altercation, or interfering with the safe operation of the flight," he told Insider. "But, they also need to build in safeguards so that a passenger who may just be rude, or perhaps did not hear a flight attendant tell him or her to do something, will not be put on the list unfairly."
Harteveldt explained other factors the government will need to think about are how long people are on the no-fly list and how to go about getting removed from it, like an appeal process.
As far as how the list will affect the average traveler, Harteveldt said the biggest impact is peace of mind when flying.
"When you get on an airplane, you shouldn't have to feel like you could be an unwilling subject in a wrestling contest," he said.
Not only is creating a national no-fly list complicated, but it is also getting pushback from Republican lawmakers. In a letter signed on Monday, eight GOP senators pressured the Justice Department to block the list. They claim the recent increase in unruly behavior is mask-related, so it would be unfair to punish those individuals.
Moreover, they argued that a flight ban is excessive because, historically, a no-fly list was restricted to terror suspects.
Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst for the American Civil Liberties Union told NPR that a no-fly list is a "bad idea," but not for the same reason. The organization sued the US government in 2016 for the TSA's terrorist no-fly list because the agency put people on it arbitrarily without a way to get taken off, reported NPR.
"Our experience with government watch lists and ban lists has not been a good one," he said.