They don’t want a “flight” of beer.
US airlines aren’t the only ones looking to crack down on booze cruisers. Ryanair has renewed calls for airport bars to limit the number of drinks they serve to passengers amid a “major misconduct clampdown.”
“It is time that European Union authorities take action to limit the sale of alcohol at airports,” a rep for the Irish budget carrier declared in a statement, per Yahoo News.
Per their proposals, watering holes would serve a maximum of two drinks per passenger as a measure to dissuade airplane pre-gamers from wreaking havoc at 30,000 feet.
Last week, Ryanair announced that it was suing a passenger for just over $15,000 after a flight from Dublin, Ireland to Lanzarote, Spain was forced to divert to Porto, Portugal and be delayed overnight due to their disruptive behavior.
A Ryanair spokesperson accused European governments of failing to take action “when disruptive passengers threaten aircraft safety and force them to divert.”
They feel that imposing restrictions on the sauce at flight hubs would result in “a safer travel experience for passengers and crews,” per the rep.
The airline already restricts the sale of alcohol aboard the plane, but this doesn’t prevent people from getting liquored up during layovers or delays, reps claim.
“During flight delays, passengers are consuming excess alcohol at airports without any limit on purchase or consumption,” they declared. “We fail to understand why passengers at airports are not limited to two alcoholic drinks (using their boarding pass in exactly the same way they limit duty-free sales), as this would result in safer and better passenger behavior on board aircraft.”
The need for a two-drink maximum was also floated in August by Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary, who claimed that intoxicated travelers weren’t just falling over or asleep like in years past.
He said that nowadays “tablets and powder” are often thrown into the mix, leading to “much more aggressive behavior” directed at the crew and other passengers.
“Passengers fighting with each other is now a growing trend on board the aircraft,” he said, who claimed that these inflight fisticuffs were happening once a week.
Airlines on this side of the pond have also floated the idea of restricting the sale of alcohol to dissuade those cruising for a boozing.
In 2022, American Airlines flight attendants proposed cutting people off after two drinks amid ongoing efforts to curb bad behavior, which spiked during the pandemic and often involved inebriated flyers.
Currently, there is no federal law that restricts the number of drinks that can be served to a passenger in the air.
However, crew members are prohibited from serving alcohol to people who appear intoxicated.
