Michael O’Leary is once again calling on UK airports to rein in early-morning drinking, arguing that boozy departure lounges are directly fuelling a rise in disruptive passenger behaviour on flights.
Speaking on The Travel Expert with Simon Calder podcast, the Ryanair chief executive said airports shouldn’t be serving alcohol before “11am or 12pm,” and suggested policing the amount holidaymakers can buy in the same way duty-free purchases are already restricted. He said he’d be happy to introduce a two-drink limit on Ryanair flights as part of a “quid pro quo” arrangement with airports, in exchange for tighter controls on pre-flight drinking.
O’Leary pointed to a sharp rise in flight diversions linked to disruptive passengers — from roughly one a week a decade ago to nearly one a day now — and said the mix of alcohol with other substances is making incidents far harder to manage than in the past. “The real issue we have to recognise is an industry problem of misbehaviour, and the misbehaviour is getting worse,” he said, adding that it’s “very hard” for staff to identify who’s had too much before boarding unless someone is “staggeringly drunk.”
He also took aim at airport bars directly, questioning why anyone would be served alcohol at five or six in the morning, and accused airports of “passing the problem on to poor old dumb airlines” rather than taking responsibility themselves.
It’s not the first time O’Leary has made this case — Ryanair has been pushing for similar restrictions for years — but the timing, right in the middle of peak summer travel season, means it’s likely to reignite the debate over who’s really responsible for managing disruptive passengers.
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