While passengers who order too many alcoholic drinks during their flights will eventually get cut off by cabin crew, there is currently no limit on how drunk one can get at the airport bar before flights at airports worldwide.
After a spike in incidents that arose because travelers entered planes in questionable condition, Ryanair (RYAOF) Chief Executive Michael O’Leary has been looking to change the situation by calling for a limit on how many drinks passengers can purchase at airport bars and restaurants.
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Change would mean ‘safer passenger behavior’: Ryanair
The longtime executive of the Dublin budget airline, who is known for his fiery statements, first started calling for a two-drink limit at European airport bars last August.
“We don’t want to begrudge people having a drink, but we don’t allow people to drink-drive, yet we keep putting them up in aircraft at 33,000 feet,” O’Leary told the British news outlet Daily Telegraph at the time.
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After saying that it had taken legal action to recoup the losses it sustained when a disruptive passenger caused a flight to be diverted in April 2024, Ryanair has reiterated its calls for a two-drink limit across Europe.
“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, and a safer travel experience for passengers and crews all over Europe,” the airline said in a Jan. 13 statement.
How might an airport drink limit work?
The airline further stressed that travelers are currently “consuming excess alcohol at airports without any limit on purchase or consumption.” It called on European Union authorities to take action on the matter.
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The Ryanair executive’s vision focuses on requiring passengers to scan their boarding pass before purchasing alcoholic drinks in the same way they would to buy at duty-free shops. A cross-airport system would also eliminate passengers’ ability to hop between bars.
Some aviation authorities said such a limit would be difficult to manage.
“There is an obligation on cabin crew under international aviation law not to serve someone who has had too much to drink,” Eoghan Corry, an Irish journalist and editor of Air and Travel Magazine, said on a podcast episode in August 2024.
He added: “The airport isn’t one bar run by the DAA; it’s a series of franchises. Everyone is in there running their business as businesses. They also tend to have different operating hours than your traditional publican.” (DAA operates Dublin and Cork airports and travel retailers worldwide.)
O’Leary’s proposal drew some online criticism from people objecting to being monitored for what they eat and drink.
But a poll conducted by market researcher YouGov showed that 62% of British and Irish adults strongly support the idea of an airport drink limit while 9% strongly oppose the idea. The rest fell somewhere in between moderate opposition, not sure and moderate support.
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