Airports must act over drink culture

Time has to be called on passengers who see flying as an opportunity to get drunk whatever the hour

Drinking has become part of the culture of going on holiday. No matter what time of the morning a flight is scheduled to depart, passengers cannot wait to get into the airport bar to have that “first pint of the holiday”.

But it has got out of hand. Now budget airline Ryanair is calling on airports to implement a two-drink limit per passenger in a bid to curb antisocial behaviour as a result of pre-trip drinking.

They are right. There is something about going to an airport which makes otherwise normal people suspend any semblance of common sense. As soon as they pass through security, heavy drinking commences.

The problem is that we are bombarded with alcohol as soon as we cross the threshold of an airport.

First we have Duty Free – once the main talking point of any overseas holiday – then there are the airport bars, open at any time of day or night, no matter whether outside, in the real world, it is too early to buy a bottle of vodka from a supermarket. People who would never consider taking their family to a pub at 6am, or cracking open a bottle of cider at home before breakfast, believe that the fact they are flying means that such a practice is perfectly acceptable.

Aside from this gay abandon, airports and aeroplanes are also increasingly places where we need to have our wits about us. If staff are having to focus on dealing with drunken holidaymakers, that detracts from keeping an eye on security, which is the most important part of their job.

And for people who do not want to get drunk on a plane, sitting near a group of drunken passengers for a few hours during a flight is hell.

If there was an emergency on a plane, the last thing you would want would be for the person next to you to be in a drunken stupor, unable to move or follow instructions.

Some airlines have already introduced tighter measures to control the problem. Jet2 has handed out lifetime bans to certain passengers whom it believes are particularly bothersome, while it also operates a number of “dry” routes – where no alcohol is served on the plane. Ryanair operated a similar policy on flights from Glasgow Prestwick to Ibiza.

Now, it is time for airports to take responsibility and ensure that passengers cannot get drunk before boarding a plane. It is only common sense.