One more for the flight
ALEX MARSHALL AND PALKO KARASZ It was 5:50 on a Friday morning, and most of the people at a Starbucks in the middle of a shopping concourse at Luton Airport, north of London, looked slightly miserable, as if they preferred to be somewhere else.
A few feet away, though, at the Smithfield Pub (“Est. 2017”), which was designed to look like a wood cabin, the mood was more festive.
A couple were drinking strawberry-flavoured cider to celebrate the start of a romantic trip to Paris. A woman was ordering gin and tonics and pints of Guinness for her friends, while swaying to music at the bar. Two men heading to Alicante, Spain, for a cricket tour were laughing while drinking lager.
“We’re wearing yellow chinos; we need this to feel better,” said Joylon Bryce, one of the men.
For many, early drinking is a tradition at Britain’s airports, but it could soon become a thing of the past. The British government recently announced that it would review airport licensing rules in England and Wales after complaints from budget airlines like Ryanair, easyJet and Jet2.com about drunk and disorderly passengers.
At London Stansted Airport this summer, for example, a groom dressed as Disney character Tinker Bell was accused of threatening other passengers on a Ryanair flight to Krakow, Poland, delaying the plane. He had to be escorted off.
Such antics are a menace, causing stress, spurring physical altercations and, the airlines said, causing flights to be delayed or diverted. Ryanair said in a statement last year, “It’s completely unfair that airports can profit from the unlimited sale of alcohol to passengers and leave the airlines to deal with the safety consequences.”
The Home Office is seeking public comments on whether the stricter licensing rules should apply to airports, too. The government has suggested banning alcohol sales at airport pubs from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m.
British newspapers expressed shock at the news. “Departy’s over: Brit holidaymakers could be BANNED from 24-hour boozing at U.K. airports,” said The Sun.
The government’s examination follows a 2017 recommendation from a committee in the House of Lords, the upper chamber of the British Parliament, to lift the licensing exemption because of a growth in booze-fueled disorder.
Being drunk on a flight is illegal in Britain, and endangering the safety of an aircraft is punishable by up to five years in jail.
Sam Pugh, who was on his way to Athens for a 30th birthday bash, was halfway through a pint at the Smithfield. He said that preventing morning drinking would not stop travellers from getting drunk on planes, since passengers can buy booze on the flights. The government should be tackling another problem, he said. “I know you can be banned from getting on a plane for being drunk, but you can’t for being an idiot. It might be better if they banned idiots.”