Pre- flight drinking reduced in crackdown

● Minister praises airport for project to tackle travellers’ antisocial behaviour

The days of excessive pre - flight airport drinking have fallen significantly at Glasgow following the success of a project to tackle disruptive travellers .

Baroness Vere, the UK Aviation Minister, yesterday praised Glasgow Airport for halving the number of offences using a system called Campus Watch in which bar and restaurant employees with the security staff to highlight incidents to the central control room and share information.

The scheme, which has been running since 2013, has reduced by 50 per cent the number of offences involving disruptive behaviour since 2017.

During her visit, Baroness Vere met staff involved in the campaign. While noting other airports do similar, Baroness Vere said: “I know that Glasgow certainly is the leader in all sorts of different ways and they were one of the first to do it.

“What’s really interesting in Glasgow is that we can see that it’s had a bit of an impact.

“Of course ( staff ) can’t be eyes and ears for absolutely everything all the time.

“It really helps because otherwise you might have passengers who get refused service in one bar, think they’ll have a go in another bar and if you have Campus Watch that other bar can say ‘ actually, no, that bloke in the yellow hoodie – we’re not going to serve him’.”

She added: “The other thing they do is they then mark that person’ s boarding card to make sure that when they go check in, the airline is aware ‘ just be careful with that person, keep an eye on them’.

“It’s one of the many good things Glasgow is doing to make the passenger experience more pleasant.”

When asked if it meant a possible reduction in opening hours of some of the air- side bars, she said: “I don’t think we’re quite there yet because I think most people want to enjoy their holiday.

“And travelling to the airport can sometimes be a bit stressful, you’re up really early in the morning.

“It’s absolutely fine to get to the airport, have a nice glass of something, put your shoes off and read your book.

“What we just don’t need is people coming here and drinking too much.”

As part of an investment into facilities, £ 8 million was used to upgrade the airport ahead of Emirates operating a Dubai service – on the world’s largest commercial aircraft, the A380 – which began last month.

There could also be more traffic coming to Glasgow, with the long- mooted expans i on of Heathrow Airp or t potentially bringing in many more passengers.

Glasgow Airpor t managing director Mark Johnston said: “Instances of disruptive behaviour remain extremely rare and I’m confident our Campus Watch programme has played a key role in ensuring the vast majority of our passengers t ravel t hrough the airport safely, responsibly and without incident. Offences involving disruptive behaviour were halved last year at Glasgow Airport and we are seeing a further reduction this year to date, so Campus Watch is having a positive effective and our zero-tolerance approach is getting through to the tiny minority who fail to act in a responsible manner.

“For many of our passengers, the arrival at the airport signals the start of their holiday and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this.

“We want to ensure our passengers continue to enjoy a pleasant, safe and disruption-free journey and Campus Watch is in place to ensure it’s a memorable one for the right reasons.”

“Instances of disruptive behaviour remain extremely rare”

MARK JOHNSTON