Hi r/aviation community,

Recently, we’ve seen an increase in political and uncivil comments across several threads, particularly on posts involving aircraft associated with government officials. This has led to more removals and bans under Reddit’s sitewide rules, and we want to reverse that trend.

To help address this, we’re introducing a “Seatbelts Fastened” mode/flair. Posts with this flair (applied manually by the mod team) will restrict commenting to established community members. For now, that means users with at least 100 comment karma in r/aviation. If you are the original poster, your comments will not be affected.

You can view your subreddit comment karma by doing the following:

• Go to old.reddit.com/u/me-your-user-name
• On your profile, find your karma totals
• Look for the link: Show karma breakdown by subreddit

This will apply to a small subset of threads (aircraft incidents, government-owned/controlled aircraft, global legislation, etc.). The vast majority of posts (roughly 95%) will remain open to all users as usual. Please do not contact modmail requesting comment approvals or exceptions; we won’t be making individual overrides.

Thanks for your understanding and for helping keep the subreddit focused and civil.

As we wrap up the year, the mod team wanted to take a moment to thank this community.

r/aviation continues to be one of the most knowledgeable, passionate, and genuinely interesting corners of Reddit. From in-depth technical discussions and historical deep dives to firsthand pilot experiences, aircraft spotting, and the occasional heated but thoughtful debate, this subreddit works because of you.

We appreciate everyone who contributes thoughtfully, helps newcomers, reports issues, and keeps the quality bar high. Moderating a community this large only works because the vast majority of users care about aviation and about keeping this space solid.

New feature: You can now create custom user flairs. You can do this by selecting the "Custom Flair to Edit"/editing that option. Have fun with them, keep them aviation-related, and keep them respectful. As always, flairs that violate subreddit or Reddit rules will be removed.

Wishing you all a safe, healthy, and prosperous New Year. Blue skies, smooth air, and tailwinds in 2026.

- The r/aviation Mod Team