From the Guardian,

Ryanair has called for a crackdown on alcohol sales at British airports after claiming that airlines are saddled with the consequences of passengers getting drunk before flights.

Europe’s biggest short-haul airline has proposed a ban on early morning sales of alcohol in bars and restaurants, and limiting the number of drinks sold per boarding pass.

The call comes after figures showed a spike in alcohol-related arrests at airports or in the air, while a major survey of cabin crew found most had witnessed drunken and disruptive behaviour on board....

Personally, I agree with FR. And I would go as far if any passenger appears in any inebriated state, to be banned from carriage or even banned from entering the gate.

I agree early morning is nuts, but doubt airports will kill off a profit center like booze sales.

I agree with the problem and disagree with the solution. The solution is to heavily disincentivize the bad behavior - possibly by harsh penalties/temporary bans on travel and/or arrests.

The 99% of people who aren't drunken fools shouldn't be punished.

Bricktop wrote:

I agree early morning is nuts, but doubt airports will kill off a profit center like booze sales.

Just because it is early morning at the airport, doesn't make it early morning for all travelers or at their origin and/or destination.

Well sometimes you won't realize your neighbour is drunken until the plane is in the air, so I think a ban would be a better decision, but if they are already drunken during boarding I fully agree.

Anyway I cannot imagine that the duty free stores would like that.

Antarius wrote:

I agree with the problem and disagree with the solution. The solution is to heavily disincentivize the bad behavior - possibly by harsh penalties/temporary bans on travel and/or arrests.

The 99% of people who aren't drunken fools shouldn't be punished.

Valid point to base the decision on the individual behaviour.

SQ22 wrote:

Anyway I cannot imagine that the duty free stores would like that.

to be fair, one isn't supposed to open and/or consume duty free purchases in the airport. I assume the FR proposal is more targeting spot consumption such as bars than alcohol purchase itself.

link/source: http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/rise ... 02002.html


" Ryanair is calling on UK airports to enforce a two-drink limit after it was revealed the number of passengers arrested for drunken behaviour increased by 50% in the last year."

"The airline has already banned customers from drinking duty-free alcohol on flights and stopped people flying from Glasgow Prestwick and Manchester to Alicante and Ibiza from bringing it on board the aircraft at all."

"The company is now urging airports to ban the sale of alcohol before 10am and to limit the number of drinks per boarding pass to a maximum of two."

"Ryanair's Kenny Jacobs said: "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."

Just 2 weeks ago we had to deny a pax boarding when she showed up at the counter and stated "you can tell me were to go even that place"
and you could smell the alcohol pouring out of her. and it was not even 6:55AM ......

Good point, drinking and flying just doesn't go together.

They are probably pissed off that the passengers are pre loaded so they don't need to buy Ryanair's rip off alcohol prices.

StTim wrote:

They are probably pissed off that the passengers are pre loaded so they don't need to buy Ryanair's rip off alcohol prices.

I was thinking the same thing, he's probably thinking make them have less at the airport so he can sell them more onboard!

Quite how this would work with business class lounges with the free flowing champagne and such, I do not know.... and quite how you police such a limit, when you have duty free shops also in the terminals selling the stuff is quite beyond me...

No alcohol in the morning makes maybe sense for holiday charters but for other travelers the morning can be a evening for their body clock and travel schedule.

thaiflyer wrote:

No alcohol in the morning makes maybe sense for holiday charters but for other travelers the morning can be a evening for their body clock and travel schedule.

Some people are just afraid to fly and a bloody mary or two can help relax.

Richard28 wrote:

Quite how this would work with business class lounges with the free flowing champagne and such, I do not know.... and quite how you police such a limit, when you have duty free shops also in the terminals selling the stuff is quite beyond me...

Thing is, Ryanair doesn't have business class lounges. They don't even have a business class.

thaiflyer wrote:

No alcohol in the morning makes maybe sense for holiday charters but for other travelers the morning can be a evening for their body clock and travel schedule.

Not with the Ryanair network which is all short-medium haul.

Uh, no. This is Ryanair mad because people are getting loaded beforehand and foregoing their overpriced alcohol. If Ryanair was serious about this they'd stop the sale of alcohol on their flights.

Ryanair have been amongst the worst, dishing out alcohol in liberal quantities on their many services to party destinations across Europe. It's only because of a recent TV show in the UK, which focussed on the problem, Ryanair are trying to steal a bit of the limelight. Fact is, however, when the program was being suggested to Ryanair (and others) they all said 'no thanks', and even instructed their crew not to be interviewed or filmed. It was only the small airline Jet2, which had the testicular fortitude to stand up against binge drinking pre- and post boarding.

Blaming the problem on the airports, is akin to the bartender blaming the liquor store around the corner for drunken patrons at his establishment.

The airlines could so very easily sort this problem out themselves: Have alcohol testers available at all departures, and subject anyone suspected to being to far gone to a test. If the test is failed, or the passenger refuses to partake, denied boarding with no compensation should ensue. But that would result in chaos and violence at the gates, with handling staff quickly refusing to service Ryanair flights. Ryanair could also do a lot to curb sales of alcohol onboard, but since their cabin crew have minimum sales quota to fulfil, and a good portion of their salaries are made up of percentages from tax-free sales, that would mean a rather hard financial blow both the Ryanair and their cabin crew.

So they pass the buck on to the airport, hoping to get semi-sober punters onboard into which they can fill overpriced alcohol of their own.

It stinks.

Ummmm...no. Whatever happened to personal responsibility and accountability? And more than anything there needs to be a change...no, wait that's not good enough...a REVOLUTION in British drinking culture.

Its kind of an issue everywhere in small numbers, but in the British Isles it seems to be a much larger problem because so many more people do it. People arrive at the airport to drink, not just grabbing a quick drink as you are waiting. It does seem like something needs to change there.

Its tough a poor gate agent can be outnumbered by like 10 or 15 football fans all drunk or on a bachelor/bachelorette party trip etc, its a safety concern.

continental004 wrote:

Ummmm...no. Whatever happened to personal responsibility and accountability? And more than anything there needs to be a change...no, wait that's not good enough...a REVOLUTION in British drinking culture.

Ha ha ha.

Binge drinking is not a new problem in the U.K. https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... l-strategy

I don't know much about English culture. I always thought they were quite stoic and stodgy to get inebriated in public (stiff upper lip and all that). Is drinking a big deal in the U.K., as bad as the frat/jock cultures on US college campuses?

They're not wrong.

Some people are very pleasant drunks. and, as pointed out, just because it's morning local time doesn't mean it's morning traveler time. I've indulged myself more than once, when I had another 11 hours to go, it was 6 AM local, and my personal clock said ?!??.

I would tend to agree with punishment rather than misguided attempts at blanket prevention. Of course, if someone is already rowdy boarding, it's not likely to get better and I'd have no problem seeing that person put off for a later flight, or no flight at all.

MIflyer12 wrote:

continental004 wrote:

Ummmm...no. Whatever happened to personal responsibility and accountability? And more than anything there needs to be a change...no, wait that's not good enough...a REVOLUTION in British drinking culture.

Ha ha ha.

Binge drinking is not a new problem in the U.K. https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... l-strategy

when I meant revolution in the British drinking culture, I meant a stop to widespread binge drinking.

I doubt there will ever be a control on liquor sales at the airports. It just won't happen. I do believe that there should be a database of those that abuse the system, so that they would't be able to fly any airline.

Antarius wrote:

Bricktop wrote:

I agree early morning is nuts, but doubt airports will kill off a profit center like booze sales.

Just because it is early morning at the airport, doesn't make it early morning for all travelers or at their origin and/or destination.

Point taken. It's 5 o'clock somewhere!