Passengers who are rude or aggressive to airport staff will be banned from boarding British Airways flights under new measures to combat "air rage".

The airline's conditions of carriage have been rewritten to warn customers they will not be allowed to board their flights if they use "threatening, abusive or insulting words to ground staff or the crew".

BA staff dealt with more than 200 cases of air rage last year, ranging from minor disagreements over smoking on board flights to more serious incidents resulting in a passenger being restrained.

Personnel are said to believe too much attention has been given to problems which arise during flights, instead of tackling difficulties on the ground before passengers get as far as boarding their planes.

'Common sense'

While there has been no increase in cases, the airline insists it will not tolerate passengers who put the safety of fellow travellers and the crew members at risk.

Owen Highley, a BA solicitor who helped to draw up the new guidelines, told The Times newspaper: "If we think someone is going to be a disruptive passenger the most obvious thing to do is to deny them boarding.

"But there has to be common sense. We are not going to ban from flight everybody who gets a bit stroppy."

Mr Highley said the new conditions of carriage, set to come into force next month, had been written in simple terms so as not to confuse passengers by corporate language.

The Times says that passengers banned from boarding their planes would not receive a refund of their ticket price unless it was a fully flexible fare.

Those involved in the most serious incidents would face a lifetime ban.

George Ryde, head of aviation at the Transport and General Workers' Union is quoted as saying: "We have been telling the airlines for some time that you can spot passengers who are likely to commit air rage from their behaviour at check-in."