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Ryanair: ban airport alcohol sales before 10am
European airline Ryanair is calling for a ban on all bar and restaurant alcohol sales in UK airports before 10am to tackle disruptive behaviour from passengers.
Ryanair wants alcohol sales in bars and restaurants in UK airports to be banned before 10am
According to a study by CAA, the number of disruptive passenger incidents in the UK rose 600% between 2012 and 2016, with the majority involving alcohol.
As such, the European airline is urging UK airports to adopt “necessary measures” in order to prevent excessive alcohol consumption, particularly during flight delays.
Other practices encouraged by Ryanair include making it mandatory to present boarding cards when purchasing alcohol in bars and restaurants, and imposing a maximum limit of two beverages per traveller.
Ryanair has already imposed a ban on customers consuming their own duty free alcohol purchases on board its flights. Those flying from Glasgow Prestwick and Manchester to Alicante and Ibiza are also no longer allowed to bring duty free alcohol on aircrafts, meaning purchases must be stowed away or left behind.
Ryanair’s Kenny Jacobs said: “It’s completely unfair that airports can profit from the unlimited sale of alcohol to passengers and leave the airlines to deal with the safety consequences. This is a particular problem during flight delays when airports apply no limit to the sale of alcohol in airside bars and restaurants.
“This is an issue which the airports must now address and we are calling for significant changes to prohibit the sale of alcohol at airports, particularly with early morning flights and when flights are delayed.
“Given that all our flights are short-haul, very little alcohol is actually sold on board, so it’s incumbent on the airports to introduce these preventative measures to curb excessive drinking and the problems it creates, rather than allowing passengers to drink to excess before their flights.”
‘Boorish’ behaviour
BBC Panorama covered alcohol-related disruptive behaviour on flights this week. In response, Dave Roberts, director general of the Alcohol Information Partnership, said it was “unacceptable” that “boorish and unpleasant” behaviour from drunken passengers could disrupt the travel of other holiday-makers.
“Insulting, disrespectful and abusive behaviour towards airline staff and fellow passengers can never be tolerated and should be dealt with using all laws and regulations available,” Roberts added.
“Airline and airport staff must be allowed to get on with their important jobs without the added pressure of managing drunken behaviour from a few unruly passengers.”