Airline incidents: Unruly passengers are causing disturbances at a record rate this year

So far in 2021 the Federal Aviation Administration has opened more than 550 investigations into "unruly passenger incidents" on US airlines. That's more investigations in just over 6 months than in 2018, 2019 and 2020 combined. That data is even more startling when you consider that the volume of air traffic in 2021 is still not quite back to normal.

‍Mask on, mask off

‍The FAA has revealed that 75% of the incidents so far have reportedly related to face coverings, with a number of passengers unwilling to wear masks or face coverings. At the start of the year the FAA imposed a strict "zero tolerance" policy, and has so far imposed fines of more than $680,000 in total this year.

This record number of incidents may only last a few more months, as the current federal mask mandates (that requires masks on trains, buses and planes) is set to expire on September 13th.