The busy holiday travel season is now in full swing, and the most recent government shutdown is behind us. So, instead of mandating stress-inducing systemwide flight reductions, the Department of Transportation is turning its attention to unruly passenger behavior and offering travel etiquette advice.
While the Federal Aviation Administration’s statistics show that unruly passenger incident reports are down considerably since the pandemic, they are already higher this year than all of 2019 — and this is ahead of the holidays, when such incidents usually spike.
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So in a “civility campaign” launched ahead of the Thanksgiving travel rush, the DOT is hoping to “restore courtesy and class to air travel” and “ensure the safety of passengers, gate workers, flight attendants, and pilots.”
A short video introducing the campaign, titled “The Golden Age of Travel Starts with You,” begins with glamorous clips from vintage airline commercials and then cuts to some familiar social media-shared video of passengers brawling and behaving badly.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy then pops in with his travel etiquette advice, asking passengers if they’re “dressing with respect,” helping pregnant women stow their bags in the overhead bin, keeping kids under control, thanking flight attendants and pilots, and “saying please and thank you in general.”
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Those tips are a good starting point for being a courteous traveler. But especially during the holidays, experts and frequent travelers also encourage all passengers to:
Pack light
Check bags if you must (and can do so for free), but also try not to overdo it with heavy or oversized carry-on bags.
Board with your group
Try not to join the scrum of folks crowding the gate before their groups are called. It just slows everyone down.
Get organized
Consolidate your carry-on gear before you board. Make sure the items you want to use on board are easily accessible, so you don’t hold up the line while rifling through your belongings.
Don’t hog the armrest
One common take on airline etiquette: The person in the middle seat is entitled to both center armrests.
Wear headphones
Everyone, including children, must wear headphones when watching inflight entertainment.
Recline with caution
While passengers have the right to recline, consider — and check — the comfort of the person behind you. And never recline during meals or when an open laptop is on the tray table behind you.
Don’t bring stinky food on the plane
It is fine and often advisable to bring your own snacks and meals to the airport and on the plane, but avoid messy and stinky items such as eggs, tuna, pungent cheeses and greasy fast food. The smell of these foods can really gross out your seatmates.
Keep your socks on
If your feet smell (don’t pretend you don’t know), keep your shoes on. And nobody wants to see or smell your bare feet on the plane.
Don’t overdo the personal grooming
Applying hand sanitizer and moisturizer is fine. And do take those breath mints. But painting your nails, clipping your toenails and pouring on the perfume is a no-go.
Tidy up after yourself in the lavatory
Airplane lavatories are tiny and unpleasant enough on their own. Wipe down the toilet seat and the counter before you leave.
Dress comfortably but ‘appropriately’
The DOT suggests you “dress with respect,” but does not provide guidelines.
Airline Contracts of Carriage often do. For example, Spirit Airlines, revised its Contract of Carriage in January 2025 to clarify that it may remove a passage who is “barefoot or inadequately clothed (i.e., see-through clothing; not adequately covered; exposed breasts, buttocks, or other private parts), or whose clothing or article, including body art, is lewd, obscene, or offensive in nature […] .”
Dressing comfortably is fine, but dressing for safety may be more important.
“Most airline accidents are not fatal. So travelers should really focus on clothes and shoes that will not hinder their ability to get off an airplane as quickly as possible,” Christine Negroni, author of “The Crash Detective” and the upcoming book “Don’t Wear Leggings on an Airplane and Other Lessons from Unhappy Landings,” said.
“Secretary Duffy may be right in calling out drop-waist pants, draw-string pajama bottoms, high-heels and flip-flops,” Negroni added. “These are very bad choices if you’re trying to get off a burning, smoking or damaged airplane in a hurry.”
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