Airline crackdown: Turkey introduces fines for passengers who stand or crowd aisle too early

It’s a topic of controversy when it comes to air travel: When your plane reaches its gate, when is the right time to stand up and begin the deplaning process?

In Turkey, passengers who get out of their seats before the plane has stopped taxiing or crowd the aisle before it’s their row’s turn to deplane will now face fines, according to a circular approved by the Turkish Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

Director General Kemal Yüksek instructed cabin crews for planes landing in Turkey to issue warnings that passengers who do not “respect the disembarkation priority of the passengers in front of or around you” will be reported to the authority, and “an administrative fine will be imposed in accordance with the applicable legal regulations.”

This includes unfastening seat belts, standing up, opening the overhead compartments or crowding the aisle while the plane is still taxiing to the gate, but also standing up or proceeding into the aisle before the row’s turn to exit, the directive states.

Professor Yüksek noted in the circular that there has been a significant increase in reports of such behaviour, which risks “passenger and baggage safety and security” and disregards “the satisfaction and exit priority” of other passengers.

The notice does not say how much passengers will be fined, but Turkish broadcaster Halk TV reported that it could be about 2,603 Turkish lira, or $AU67.

Impatient passengers can actually delay the process of deplaning.

Under Federal Aviation Administration regulations, the cabin crew has to alert the pilot if a passenger stands up while the plane is still moving toward a gate.

“It is a safety issue,” Jennifer “Jaki” Johnson, a flight attendant for a major carrier as well as the CEO and founder of Jetsetter Chic, told The Post in 2019.

Etiquette experts say that passengers should wait for the rows in front of them to exit before stepping into the aisle, with the exception of allowing passengers through who have tight connections.

They note, however, that when it comes to standing and stretching your legs after the fasten seat belt sign is turned off, there’s no harm in doing so at your seat, as long as you stay out of the aisle and remain mindful of the passengers around you.

The International Air Transport Association called disruptive passengers “a significant problem” in 2019, with one incident for every 1,053 flights reported in 2017. The U.S. had a spike in incidents in 2021, as travellers clashed with flight crews over mask mandates and other issues.

Numbers have dropped in the years since, but the AA reported nearly 900 reports of unruly behaviour for the first nine months of 2024 - more than were reported in all of 2018.