O’Leary has previously called for the ban (Image: Getty)
Drinking in airport departure lounges should be restricted, according to Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary. The airline boss believes that airport bars should not serve alcohol early in the morning, in a bid to stamp out poor behaviour on flights.
O’Leary, who has served as Ryanair CEO for more than 30 years, has previously spoken out about the link between alcohol and disruption to flights. Currently, airport pubs are not subject to the same licensing laws others are bound by, with O’Leary questioning the sense in allowing people to consume alcohol early in the morning before they fly. The businessman told the Times: “It’s becoming a real challenge for all airlines, 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?
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‘I fail to understand why anybody in airport bars is serving people at five or six o’clock’ (Image: Getty)
“There should be no alcohol served at airports outside [those] licensing hours.”
Mr O’Leary has been calling for a two-drink per-person limit “for many years” and has vowed to pursue disruptive passengers through the courts to reclaim expenses caused by flight diversions.
He added: “In the old days if somebody had drunk too much, they get on board, they fall asleep. You have a combination of drink and drugs — they want to fight somebody, they’re hyper. We and all the airlines are having enormous problems.
“And the women are as bad offenders as the men in this.”
The Ryanair CEO says that the company currently sees flight disruptions of “nearly one a day”.
He said: “Until somebody creates an accident that causes a plane to crash and kills hundreds, no government will take this problem seriously and airlines are tearing their hair out.”
Last year, Ryanair sought £12,500 in damages from a disruptive passenger who caused a flight from Dublin to Lanzarote to be diverted to Porto.
Mr O’Leary told Sky News: “If passengers continue disrupting our flights, we will sue you for the cost of those diversions and those disruptions.”
He added: “We’re having two or three of these diversions a week.”
O’Leary believes that alcohol is one of the biggest factors behind flight disruption (Image: Getty)
Diverting a flight causes airlines to incur additional charges, including airport handling costs, increased fuel requirements and sometimes, hotel stays for other passengers.
Speaking at the time, a Ryanair spokesperson called on authorities to take action to reduce the number of flight disturbances where alcohol was a significant contributing factor.
They said: “It is time that EU authorities take action to limit the sale of alcohol at airports.
“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 behaviour on board aircraft, and a safer travel experience for passengers and crews all over Europe.”
