Southwest Airlines says it will not resume serving alcohol on its flights after the recent assault on one of its flight attendants. It had planned to resume alcohol service on some flights next month.
Southwest Airlines said Friday it will not resume alcohol service as planned after the recent assault on one of its flight attendants, according to an internal memo obtained byOn May 23, a Southwest passenger was arrested on suspicion of felony battery causing serious injury after she allegedly struck a flight attendant during a flight from Sacramento to San Diego,"The passenger repeatedly ignored standard inflight instructions and became verbally and physically abusive upon landing,"...
Sonya Lacore, Southwest's head of in-flight operations, wrote in the memo related to alcohol service that"based on the rise in passenger disruptions in flight, I've made the decision to re-evaluate the restart of alcohol service on board." Earlier Friday, Southwest said it banned the woman accused of assaulting the flight attendant on Sunday and knocking out two of her teeth.Mainz told CNN the passenger"is restricted from ever flying on Southwest Airlines again, and she has been advised this decision is final."
The Federal Aviation Administration says it has a zero-tolerance policy for unruly passenger behavior and has proposed civil fines ranging from $9,000 tothat it had received about 2,500 reports of unruly behavior by passengers since the beginning of the year, including about 1,900 reports of passengers refusing to comply with the federal face mask mandate.