British Airways is introducing football-style yellow cards for passengers in an attempt to tackle "ground rage".

The cards are to be shown to any customer who is disruptive or abusive towards a member of the company's ground staff.

They warn passengers that if they do not control their behaviour then they could be refused permission to travel and may be reported to the police.

We hope the cards will defuse the situation on the ground to avoid behaviour escalating in the air

Geoff Went, British Airways

In 1998, the airline became the first to introduce final warning cards for troublesome travellers already in the air.

Launching the new cards on Thursday, BA's safety and security director Geoff Went said staff had to deal with aggressive behaviour on a daily basis.

"At least once a month this turns to physical abuse," he said.

Tiny minority

"We hope the cards will defuse the situation on the ground to avoid the behaviour escalating in the air, which may put passengers and crew at risk at 35,000ft.

"We know from our experience of dealing with disruptive passengers in the air that in the vast majority of cases, issuing a yellow card is successful and causes passengers to refrain from further abusive behaviour."

BA pointed out that although it carried more than 40 million passengers a year, only a tiny minority were disruptive.

It said the idea for the scheme came from football, which uses yellow cards as a final warning.

If players commit another misdemeanour on the pitch, they are then shown a red card and sent off.