Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary calls for morning booze ban at airports

Michael O’Leary has said alcohol should be banned before nearly all morning take-offs.

The head of Europe's biggest airline said the sale of all alcohol should be permitted before "11am or 12pm" to prevent "misbehaviour" on flights.

O'Leary added that in serving alcohol at all times, airports were "passing the problem on to poor old dumb airlines".

Speaking on The Telegraph's Travel Expert with Simon Calder podcast on Friday (24 July), the 65-year-old Irishman said he would be happy to work with airports by implement a two-drink limit on Ryanair flights as part of a ‘quid pro quo’ arrangement.

Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary. Image: Getty.

This, he said, would help stop "aggressive, argumentative" drunk passengers disrupting flights.

Asked if airlines should introduce a two drink limit, O'Leary said: “No problem with it. I mean very few passengers on board our aircraft would buy more than two drinks anyway, but if the quid pro quo was the airline’s limited to two drinks? Done. In a heartbeat.

“The real issue we have to recognise is an industry problem of misbehaviour, and the misbehaviour is getting worse.

"Particularly due periods of flight delays, you have people sitting in airports consuming copious amounts of alcohol.”

Speaking about stopping drunk passengers getting on flights, he said: “It is very hard to identify unless they are staggeringly drunk, unless they can't stand up straight.

“Most people, even drunks, can pass through, show your passport and get onboard. And you have a combination, some cases, of alcohol and drugs, and they get aggressive and argumentative. In the old days, if you drank too much, you just fell asleep on board a plane.”

Taking aim at the airports themselves, he added: “It continues to be a mystery to me why pubs at airports are allowed to open at 6am in the morning, serving alcohol.

"Why do you not serve tea and coffees until 11 o'clock or 12 o'clock in the afternoon?“

O'Leary even gave a solution to the issue, suggesting a similar process to duty-free, which limit how much alcohol can be bought, could be employed where bars check a passenger's boarding pass.

He said: “Why don't we do the same but with alcoholic drinks at bars? [Bars] pass the problem on to the airline. The airports don't care.

"They just passed the problem on to the airlines, and the poor old dumb airlines are diverting planes."

O'Leary added: “Our crews shouldn't have to work in that environment.

"And our fellow passengers deserve the respect that airports will not be shovelling alcohol into these people, particularly during flight delays, copious amounts of alcohol, so that they can misbehave.”

Not the first time O'Leary has called for a ban

Michael O'Leary wants stricter rules around morning drinking at airports. Image: Adobe Stock.

The Ryanair CEO echoed this sentiment just months ago when he said in May that alcohol should be banned at airports in the early morning.

He claimed that poorly behaved passengers were allegedly causing problems for the airline, including forcing flights to divert.

Main causes for concern are certain common routes to and from holiday destinations, such as Ibiza, Alicante and Tenerife, as well as some Irish routes.

Currently, airport pubs and restaurants are allowed to serve alcohol any time of the day as they don’t fall under the same licensing rules as regular businesses.

Speaking to The Times, O’Leary revealed: “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?”

The businessman has called for a two-drink cap over the years, which he claims the airline follows onboard its planes.

“We are reasonably responsible but the ones who are not responsible, the ones who are profiteering off it, are the airports who have these bars open at five or six o’clock in the morning and during delays are quite happy to send these people as much alcohol as they want because they know they’re going to export the problem to the airlines.”

Additionally, he has revealed the problem is worsening, adding that previously the airline would see about one diverted flight per week, which has now increased to ‘one diversion a day’.

In a serious warning, O’Leary stated: “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.”

Intoxicated plane passengers can face penalties of up to two years in prison, as well as hefty fines up to £5,000.

Just last year, Ryanair announced it would be taking legal action against disruptive passengers who caused a diversion in order to recover losses, and filed proceedings against an Irish passenger, seeking €15,000 (£12,500) in damages caused on a flight from Dublin to Lanzarote.