Dozens of travellers behaving badly during the holiday season were arrested and charged for a variety of offences including assault and drug possession.
The Australian Federal Police charged almost 50 passengers with 69 offences at major airports during the 2022/2023 Christmas and school holiday travel period as part of a nationwide crackdown on disruptive behaviour in the air and on the ground.
A 78-year-old woman accused of biting a flight attendant onboard a plane from New Zealand last month was among 49 travellers charged in separate incidents across the country.
Others include a 41-year-old man who allegedly downed 700ml of duty-free scotch on an international flight to Sydney before verbally abusing airline staff.
A 47-year-old man is among 24 people slapped with infringement notices during the same holiday period after his alleged disorderly behaviour caused a disruption on board a flight that was forced to turn back to Sydney on Jan. 10.
The number of incidents almost doubled this holiday season after the COVID-19 pandemic halted travel across the globe.
The AFP charged 28 people with 49 offences during the same period of the 2021-22 summer school holidays. Another 16 people were issued with infringement notices for a range of incidents including intoxication, smoking on planes and traffic offences around the airport.
AFP Commander Geoff Turner said the spike in incidents was concerning.
“In recent months we have seen thousands more passengers travelling through airports across Australia, as state and international borders reopened after the easing of COVID-19 travel restrictions,” Turner said.
“The AFP was more than prepared to manage the expected spike in passenger numbers, with increased patrols resulting in teams responding to a range of incidents to assist the travelling public across the country.”
Known as operation Sleigh, the crackdown was sparked after the AFP responded to about 20,000 incidents at AFP-protected airports across Australia last year.
The AFP charged more than 360 people with about 520 offences at airports during 2022.
