The U.S. Department of Transportation has rolled out a civility campaign aimed at improving behavior in airports and on airplanes as the busy holiday travel season begins. Titled “The Golden Age of Travel Starts with You,” the initiative was announced in a department press release last week and is intended to encourage more courteous conduct from passengers nationwide.
As part of the effort the DOT released a roughly 90‑second video that opens with archival images of air travel set to Frank Sinatra’s “Come Fly With Me,” then shifts to tense music and clips of in‑flight confrontations — from a passenger using bare feet on a seat monitor to several onboard scuffles. In the video, Secretary Sean Duffy poses five questions he says travelers should ask themselves during the holidays, such as whether they would help a pregnant passenger lift a bag into an overhead bin, dress respectfully, or thank flight attendants and pilots.
Officials say the campaign is meant to kickstart a conversation about restoring courtesy and civility in air travel, which they argue will make trips more pleasant and improve safety for passengers, gate workers, flight attendants and pilots.
The push comes amid a rise in unruly airline behavior: the FAA has recorded about 13,800 incidents involving unruly passengers since 2021 and says in‑flight outbursts have increased about 400% since 2019. In 2023 the FAA reported nearly 2,000 incidents, a drop from the pandemic peak tied to mask‑mandate disputes.
Air travel demand is expected to be especially high this Thanksgiving. The FAA predicts this will be the busiest Thanksgiving travel period in 15 years, with Tuesday likely to see the largest number of flyers, and AAA projects roughly 6 million people will fly in the U.S. for the holiday.