According to Daily Express - Travel, Michael O'Leary described his frustration that airport bars serve alcohol at five or six in the morning, questioning the need for beer at that hour. He argued that no alcohol should be served at airports outside standard licensing hours. O'Leary claimed that Ryanair is being forced to divert flights on an almost daily basis due to intoxicated and unruly passengers, a situation he described as a real challenge for all airlines, according to The Guardian - Main UK.
The problem, he said, often begins long before boarding, with passengers spending hours drinking in airport bars, according to Daily Express - Travel. Unlike pubs on the high street, airport bars are not currently subject to the same licensing restrictions, allowing them to serve alcohol around the clock. O'Leary has been pushing for a two-drink per-person limit at airports for many years, as reported by The Times, and he believes that reforming alcohol rules would benefit airlines by reducing unruly behavior, according to Daily Express - Travel.
I fail to understand why anybody in airport bars is serving people at five or six o'clock in the morning. Who needs to be drinking beer at that time? There should be no alcohol served at airports outside [those] licensing hours.
He insisted that Ryanair is reasonably responsible when it comes to serving alcohol, rarely offering a passenger more than two drinks on board, according to Daily Express - Travel. O'Leary has accused airports of profiteering off the travel ritual and exporting the problem to the airlines, according to Daily Express - Travel. The issue has escalated beyond alcohol, with drug use now compounding the problem.
According to Daily Express - Travel, O'Leary maintained that drug use has crept into the equation alongside alcohol consumption, leading passengers to become more aggressive and prone to fighting. Recent incidents highlight the severity of the situation. A man named Stephen Blofield was recently jailed after becoming abusive and causing widespread alarm aboard a Ryanair flight from Poland to Bristol, according to Daily Express - Travel.
I fail to understand why anybody in airport bars is serving people at five or six o'clock in the morning. Who needs to be drinking beer at that time? There should be no alcohol served at airports outside licensing hours.
Footage also recently emerged of a brawl aboard a Jet2 flight from Antalya, Turkey to Manchester, which resulted in airline bans for two of those involved, according to Daily Express - Travel. O'Leary reminded passengers that it is a criminal offence to be drunk on an aircraft, carrying a penalty of up to two years in prison and a substantial fine, according to Daily Express - Travel. In January last year, Ryanair announced it had started taking legal action to recover losses against disruptive passengers when they forced a flight to be diverted, according to Daily Express - Travel.
The airline filed legal proceedings against a passenger in Ireland to seek €15,000 in damages related to a flight from Dublin to Lanzarote, according to Daily Express - Travel. The specific licensing hours O'Leary would propose for airport bars remain unclear, as does the level of support from other airlines for his proposed measures. The current legal framework for airside alcohol sales in the UK and EU, and what would be required to change it, has not been detailed.
We are being compelled to divert flights on an almost daily basis due to drunk and aggressive passengers.
Data on the proportion of disruptive passenger incidents involving alcohol versus drugs is not available, and the response from airport authorities and bar operators to O'Leary's proposals has yet to be reported.
It's becoming a real challenge for all airlines.
Airports are profiteering off the travel ritual and exporting the problem to the airlines.
Ryanair is reasonably responsible when it comes to serving alcohol, rarely offering a passenger more than two drinks on board.
Drug use has crept into the equation alongside alcohol consumption, compounding the problem as passengers subsequently want to fight.
It is a criminal offence to be drunk on an aircraft, carrying a penalty of up to two years in prison and a substantial fine.