Flight attendants facing rise in passenger anger, often over mask-wearing: union

As the pandemic drags on, tempers and anxieties are flaring.

Passenger disobedience, rudeness, and aggressive behaviour is on the rise and directly impacting the health and well-being of airline employees, according to unions representing flight attendants at the country’s major airlines.

“Our people go to work and they anticipate having altercations with our guests on board,” said Chris Rauenbusch, an active cabin crew employee with Calgary-based WestJet Airlines Ltd. and president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 4070. “Some people have mental health conditions and need to take leaves due to these circumstances. It’s not what we signed up for as flight attendants, but it’s unfortunately become our new reality.”

“Every time you approach someone you have in your mind that this could be stage one of a seriously escalating situation,” said Troy Winters, senior officer for health and safety with CUPE National. The union represents more than 15,000 flight attendants at nine different Canadian airlines, including WestJet, Air Canada and Transat.

“It’s not as bad as it is in the States, there’s not as much serious violence, but we certainly do have folks who are overly belligerent.”

While reports of increasingly disruptive behaviour in recent months on American flights have prompted calls for U.S. lawmakers to crack down on the problem, data suggests the problem is escalating in Canada as well. Flight attendants say many of the problems stem from passengers who refuse to obey the federal requirement to wear a face mask on board.

According to Transport Canada, incidences of passenger non-compliance with the mask mandate spiked over the summer. Airlines reported 330 passengers to the regulator for refusing to wear a mask during July and August, more than twice the number of incidents reported in April and May.

The rise can be partially attributed to increased passenger volumes as airlines reinstated routes and Canadians began to travel again over the summer. But Winters said he doesn’t believe that’s the only factor at play. As the pandemic drags on, tempers and anxieties are flaring, and Winters said it doesn’t help that different provincial governments have been sending different messages.

“You’ve got different jurisdictions like Alberta and Saskatchewan, in the summer they declared the pandemic’s over and you don’t need to wear masks anymore. So folks coming out of those regions are saying ‘I don’t need to do it,”’ he said.