Air Rage Incidents Triple Among Drunk British Fliers

London, England (AHN) - Data from the United Kingdom's Civil Aviation Authority showed that air rage incidents among British passengers have tripled over the past five years. Pilots blamed the rise on plane delays which led bored and angry passengers to take up drinking as a way to pass the time, leading to inflight fights.

From January to March, the CAA recorded 601 air rage incidents, up by 32 percent from 458 cases logged for the first quarter of 2007. For the same period in 2003, only 214 such incidents were on record.

According to CAA most of the enraged air passengers were males in their 30s, but 25 percent were females.

Drunken passengers have compromised the safety of other travelers. In July a chartered jet full of Britons had to make an emergency landing after one of its fliers, apparently drunk, tried to open its exit door while the plane was mid-air.

The transfer of British Airways to the newly opened Terminal 5 of Heathrow Airport last year had led to plane delays due to problems with its luggage system.

Aside from Heathrow, other major U.K. gateways like those in Gatwick and Stansted, are also experiencing overcrowding. It has prompted irate fliers to complain and led the Competition Commission to recommend that BAA be required to sell its holdings in some of the airports to allow healthy competition.

But Peter Morris, chief economist of consultancy Ascend, pointed out selling the airports will not solve the congestion problem. Airport operators in Britain are in a bind because while demand for air service is high, there is little room for expansion of capacity because of opposition by environmentalists to construction of new runways and terminals in London's gateways.