Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has now passed the ball to the airport bars and offered to introduce his own limit of two drinks if additionally they conform to it.
O’Leary complained that there had been a rise in violence on his routes over the summer, pointing to airport bars where passengers were sent to their flights heavily intoxicated.
He called on the Labour government to introduce a two-drink limit in airport bars, which he sees as the foundation explanation for the issue. O’Leary also pointed to the rise in drug use amongst passengers as a explanation for on-board violence.
Despite opposition from Wetherspoons pub mogul Sir Tim Martin, O’Leary has called the pub landlords’ bluff and promised to introduce his own limit, saying he would “happily do so tomorrow”.
“If the price of introducing a drink limit at the airport, where the problem arises, is introducing a drink limit on board the aircraft, we have no problem with that,” O’Leary said. Sky News.
“The real query is how we are able to stop these people getting drunk at airports, especially after there was an enormous increase in air traffic control delays this summer.
“They come on board with too much alcohol in their blood. If we find that they are drunk on board, we do not serve them alcohol. But that does not solve the problem.”
O’Leary’s call for a two-drink limit angered Martin, the founder and chairman of Wetherspoons, a pub in any respect major British airports.
Martin, the founder and chief executive of Wetherspoons, defended the measures his pub had taken to limit alcohol consumption by its jet-setting customers, while taking a swipe at O’Leary.
“As far as I know, there have been no complaints from airport authorities or airlines about our pubs in recent years,” Martin told the Just.
“Years ago we stopped selling ‘shooters’ at airports, as well as ‘double-up’ offers. Ryanair, on the other hand, offers a discount on Irish whiskey when a double is ordered,” said Martin.
O’Leary, who never mentioned Martin or Wetherspoons during his campaign, seems to have seen through his bluff.
“The airports are of course against it and say that their bars do not serve drunk passengers. But they serve the relatives of drunk passengers,” O’Leary previously told the telegraph.
Martin also identified that of the actual problem airports that O’Leary mentioned by name – Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh – Wetherspoons only has a branch in Edinburgh.
Nevertheless, aggression in air travel appears to be an issue that is just not going to go away. The biggest challenge for Ryanair is party destinations resembling Ibiza and Ayia Napa.
O’Leary said violence occurred on his flights once every week in the course of the summer.
Last week, a Ryanair flight from Manchester to Ibiza was diverted to Toulouse after passengers became disruptive.
