Ryanair calls for limit to amount passengers can drink pre-flight
RYANAIR has called for limits on the number of drinks served to air passengers after an abusive drunk woman’s antics on one of their flights was livetweeted by another passenger.
The drunk woman, flying from Palma, Majorca, to East Midlands Airport, hurled abuse at passengers and flight crew after the flight was delayed by air traffic control strikes in France.
The director of a PR firm who happened to be on the plane sent out tweets as the drama unfolded.
She tweeted: “On a plane stuck on the tarmac at #Palma airport for 3 hours. Woman in front of me kicking off! Has a 4yo and demanding pillow and blanket.”
She continued: “Woman now saying she will never fly RyanAir again. Not happy with passengers reminding her it is the fault of #French air traffic control.
“Now she’s been asked by cabin crew to hand over a bottle of wine she is drinking. She’s just necked the remaining half bottle.
“Now she has asked to get off the plane. She’s getting off the plane saying that there’s something wrong and it’s terrorism .
“Woman’s child is now terrified and asking her mum to stop and saying she’s making her sad.”
Cabin crew threatened to remove the passenger and call the police before the woman settled down to sleep at the back of the plane for the duration of the flight but the drama did not end there.
Back in Leicestershire at East Midlands Airport, the PR director concluded: “All was quiet until we went through passport control and she kicked off again and called security over while we were in the queue to say ‘the tramp’ was standing too near her daughter. Fun!”
Ryanair wants a two-limit alcoholic drink limit for passengers, as well as a nobooze-before-10am rule, and said the incident on Tuesday October 10 was further evidence a change was needed.
Robin Kiely, head of communications for Ryanair, said: “A customer on this flight from Palma to East Midlands became disruptive before take-off and was warned about their behaviour by our cabin crew.
“We will not tolerate unruly or disruptive behaviour at any time and the safety and comfort of our customers, crew and aircraft is our number one priority.
“This is exactly why we are calling for significant changes to prohibit the sale of alcohol at airports, such as a two-drink limit per passenger and no alcohol sales before 10am.
“It’s incumbent on the airports to introduce these preventative measures to curb excessive drinking and the problems it creates, rather than allowing passengers to drink to excess before their flights.”