Cabin crew and ground staff subjected to violence, threats and harassment at Scottish airports, new survey finds

Around four in ten cabin crew and almost a third of ground crew at Scottish airports have been assaulted at work by abusive passengers, a survey has found.

Unite the Union received responses from workers in the lead-up to the launch of its Abuse Doesn’t Fly Campaign, calling for new laws to ensure violent and abusive passengers are banned.

The union also wants any bans to apply across the sector, ensuring abusive passengers can’t simply transfer to different airlines and airports.

Survey results found that 72% of ground staff and 71% of cabin crew receive verbal abuse at least monthly.

In addition, 31% of ground staff and 42% of cabin crew said they had been physically assaulted.

Drunk passenger ‘exposed himself’ to female cabin crew member

Alcohol was the biggest trigger for abuse from passengers, according to 95% of cabin crew and 55% of ground staff, followed by cancellations and baggage issues.

One female cabin crew member said: “I had a drunk passenger making sexual gestures to me in front of other passengers.

“After a warning, he came out of the toilet and had his trousers down, exposing himself and asking for sexual favours. As a single cabin crew member during a flight, this made me feel very vulnerable.”

Cabin crew member ‘held by the throat by passenger’

One male cabin crew member recalled an incident in which a passenger grabbed his throat and held him against the cabin wall, and he was forced to allow him to fly before he was apprehended at the destination airport.

He said: “An intoxicated passenger was unhappy about his seat and wanted me to fix it right there and then – I told him that we would have to wait until boarding was complete before we could move anyone due to weight and balance and the fact it was a full flight.

“The passenger grabbed me by the throat and held me against the wall of the aircraft before releasing me and sitting down.

“Airport authorities refused to come to the aircraft and remove the passenger and the passenger was unwilling to leave the aircraft.

“So we decided to fly with the passenger and met police on arrival at destination. Passenger was verbally abusive to the captain and authorities detained him while he was walking off the aircraft.”

‘Racist remarks’ directed towards security agent

One female security agent spoke of the racist remarks she received from one passenger who was prevented from flying that day, but was able to return to the airport the next day.

She said: “Recently passengers have become more abusive, it’s getting to the point where it starts affecting you mentally. It’s a bit too much for my colleagues to take as well. Passengers who do this just get to continue their journeys, walk away and fly and we are left behind with the thoughts of what happened.

“I’ve had racist remarks towards me. One incident last year, the police were called and the passenger who made these remarks was stopped from flying that day. However, he was able to fly again the next day and I saw him a couple of weeks later in the airport. I felt angry that he could just come back to the airport and fly again.”

Worker safety must be ‘top priority’

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Airports and airlines now need to up their game on this. They must make the safety of workers their top priority and work with Unite to stamp out workplace abuse once and for all. No worker should ever be put in dangerous situations for simply doing their job.”

The Abuse Don’t Fly campaign is calling for a worker-led approach to abusive and disruptive passenger behaviour through a Worker Safety Charter, which was overwhelmingly supported by airport staff.

Unite says airports and airlines should have the power to ban disruptive and abusive passengers, coordinating with other airports to make this effective.

The campaign is also calling for minimum standards to be introduced across the industry, ensuring workers are adequately protected with panic alarms, mandatory signage, increased police presence, and regular reviews.

It follows changes to the Employment Rights Act 2025, which directs employers to ensure workers are protected against third-party harassment, such as from customers.

Meanwhile, the Aviation Bill is currently going through Parliament and includes measures on disruptive passengers, but Unite does not believe it goes far enough to protect workers.