The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has proposed a substantial fine for something that can only be described as an unusual crackdown…
Alaska Airlines faces fine for intoxicated passenger violations
The FAA has announced that it has proposed a $165,000 civil penalty against Alaska Airlines for allegedly allowing intoxicated passengers to board flights. This fine relates to incidents that occurred on 11 flights between February 2024 and February 2025.
FAA regulations prohibit airlines from allowing anyone who appears intoxicated to board an aircraft. Specifically, “no certificate holder may allow any person to board any of its aircraft if that person appears to be intoxicated.”
Details about the exact incidents that caused this enforcement action aren’t public, though presumably it involves situations where passengers caused disruptions onboard aircraft, and law enforcement had to get involved, or something.
The oneworld airline has 30 days to respond to the FAA’s enforcement letter, and it can either pay the fine or challenge it. In a statement, the Seattle-based carrier said the following:
“We take seriously our responsibility to provide a safe and secure environment for our guests and employees. We participated fully with the FAA’s audit of our policies and practices as it relates to intoxicated guests on board our aircraft. Since the FAA shared these concerns with us over a year ago, we made meaningful changes to ensure compliance with the FAA’s expectations – including enhanced training for all flight attendants and customer service agents. We respect the results of the FAA’s audit and are confident in the changes that have been in place for the last year to ensure our shared standards are being met.”
Is this a reasonable fine to levy against an airline?
The FAA understandably takes enforcement action against airlines when they violate federal regulations, ranging from extended delays on tarmacs, to failure to follow regulations for disabled travelers. However, often there are patterns to the type of enforcement action that’s taken.
The concept of going after one specific airline for allowing intoxicated people onto aircraft is interesting, though. Is there actually a meaningful difference between airlines when it comes to both identifying intoxicated passengers, and ensuring they’re not served more? Or are we about to see most airlines face fines over lack of enforcement of these rules, in hopes of minimizing the number of inflight disruptions?
Part of the issue is that nowadays you potentially come in contact with so few airline employees prior to getting onto the plane. You can check-in online, you’ll often scan your own boarding pass at the gate, and maybe you exchange a “hello” with the flight attendant as you board.
Admittedly this is one of the reasons it’s important for flight attendants to engage with passengers at the door, so they can quickly spot any unusual behavior, or signs of intoxication. But beyond that, with large airlines carrying tens of millions of passengers per year, is it reasonable to expect that some intoxicated people won’t slip through the cracks?
Beyond that, I don’t want to diminish the problem with being intoxicated, but we also have to be realistic — different people respond to alcohol differently. Like, some people immediately become aggressive when they start drinking, and if they drink to excess, they can act completely out of character. Then you have other people who just get happy and relaxed. I don’t drink often, but when I do while flying, I generally fall in the latter category. 😉
My point is to say that if I’m being honest, I’ve been drunk on a good number of flights. Okay, I generally don’t drink at all on domestic flights, but if I’m traveling in international first class, I’m probably technically “intoxicated” every so often.
For that matter, in domestic first class you’ll see some flight attendants refill an alcoholic drink four times on a fairly short flight, and I think technically we’d all agree that the person being served is probably intoxicated. However, if they’re not causing any issues, should we care?
Bottom line
The FAA is fining Alaska Airlines $165K over 11 incidents of intoxicated passengers between early 2025 and early 2026. While we often see enforcement action from the FAA over rules violations, I’m curious if Alaska is being singled out here, or if we’re about to see similar fines for other airlines as well.
Fines over intoxicated passengers are tricky, because when an airline carries tens of millions of passengers per year, it can be hard to always figure out who is intoxicated and who isn’t. For that matter, the real issue isn’t broadly the concept of being intoxicated, but instead, the people who become aggressive and disruptive.
What do you make of this FAA intoxication fine?