Aeroplane passengers should be restricted to two drinks at airports, Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary has said.
Mr O’Leary said introducing alcohol limits at airports would help tackle a rise in disorder on flights.
Violent outbursts are occurring weekly due to alcohol, he said, especially when it is mixed with other substances.
“We don’t want to begrudge people having a drink,” he told the Daily Telegraph.
“But we don’t allow people to drink-drive, yet we keep putting them up in aircraft at 33,000ft.”
This could potentially make the problem worse.
I could see people “pre-gaming” before they get to the airport. And if there is one thing I learned in college is that alcoholics pre-gaming can be a very dangerous thing
Outright prohibition never works. They have to get a lot more clever to work against addiction.
“But we don’t allow people to drink-drive, yet we keep putting them up in aircraft at 33,000ft.”
I didn’t realise you had to fly the plane yourself on Ryanair now. That’s one way to cut costs I guess…
You say this, but have you ever tried to drive a car (sober) that is packed full of drunk people? It’s not easy, and they all might just get you pulled over anyway.
Found the drink addicted brit in the comments
Look at those downvotes lol, they hate being called out. Surprised they have the time to be on Lemmy instead of getting shitfaced and terrorising locals.
That is uncomprehendingly stupid
Considering how shitty flying economy is in general, it seems like a 2 drink minimum is need to even tolerate it.
Lol, maybe if conditions didn’t get so shit in airports, fewer would crack
What if we made airports less shit, so people weren’t spending so much time there, so people weren’t as stressed about missing their flights.
I have never been stressed to get on a bus, you roll up, put your shit in it, and get on. No massive waits, no massive security line, just get on and the bus leaves. We should make airports more like this.
Air travel is an infinitely more complex and involved problem to solve. There is no method of safely flying without going through mountains of bullshit first.
Much of the problem is related to TSA security theater. Cutting down on that alone would go a long way to improving the airport experience.
TSA (obviously) isn’t a thing outside of the US. Airport security does suck, but it’s nowhere near as bad as it is when flying to America.
If flying during a quiet period, with all the right checks and few queues you can get through security in 5 mins. When it really fucking sucks is when it’s busy, something airports should be able to deal with easily.
How about two drinks, plus a free drink from the airline you’re flying per half hour delayed? Seems more reasonable.
Ryanair wants to turn the airport into a pubcrawl.
Interesting.
“But we don’t allow people to drink-drive, yet we keep putting them up in aircraft at 33,000ft.”
Aaah, so the problem is drunk pilots. I can get behind a two-drink maximum for flying a plane. Although, in “Flight” the guy flew a plane upside down hammered…so maybe it should be a two-drink minimum to get maximum innovation.
ETA: I prob should have added /s
The false equivalence in the article is frustrating. We don’t allow people to drink and drive, but we do allow people to drink and ride. Contextually, I think the article is referring to drunk passengers being unruly, not pilots. If they are actually talking about pilots then it should be a 0 drink limit before a flight. Just punish the disorderly drunks, and let the rest of the adults, adult.
People are angry because of how absolutely shitty and evil ryan air is when they are abusing and stressing up their passengers with all their bullshit.
Otherwise airports are super calm (in the EU anyways).
Ryan Air: No, it’s the airports that are wrong.
I get that Lemmy’s kneejerk reaction is naturally that the big corporation’s CEO is wrong and evil (he IS an asshole, at least), but drunk passengers on planes is an actual issue.
I have a couple of close relatives who’ve worked as air hostesses for Ryanair for years, and they mostly like the job except for summer flights from a specific European island country in which there’s a big tradition of drinking a lot and big groups of men doing “guy trips” to my country either for specific football games or for the beaches. These usually involve an almost permanent state of drunkenness, getting into fights with locals, trashing places.
O’Leary’s claim about inebriated people being hard to identify is partly bullshit from what my relatives tell me - they say that even when they can notice these groups are already drunk when boarding, Ryanair’s staff isn’t really comfortable policy wise in preventing them from boarding. Plane staff may refuse them alcohol on board but by then they’re usually already in a state of general lack of control. I assume the company doesn’t want to strenghten boarding rules in order not to lose these groups as customers, and staff gets shafted in the process. But these people shouldn’t be getting this drunk on a plane (or in general).
So maybe should just get comfortable policy-wise with turning away passengers fucked in passengers at the gate.
A two drink maximum doesn’t stop me from snorting a fistful of ket in the cab, getting 1-2 drinks after security, then going ballistic during the flight. Getting turned away at the gate because I’m obviously kholed does stop me though.
The thing that works the best might cost Ryanair some money though, and we obviously can’t have that, won’t someone please think of the profits?
People are shit at flying period. You should have to pass a test before being sold an airline ticket. Nothing fancy. Just the basic do’s and don’ts of flying. Perhaps a psychological test for good measure and no skin walkers.
Do line up window middle isle front to back.
Don’t dick about in the aisle
Do sit down and stay seated
Don’t recline seat ever. You’re just fucking up the person behind you
Do leave both middle arm rests free for the poor bastard sitting there
Don’t leave the window shade open if the sun’s beating in.
No reclining? Fuck that shit-- most of my flights are long as hell and I’m not sitting ramrod straight for 14 hours. I can barely sleep as it is and those extra few degrees of tilt (plus a few beers) are the only thing that lets me get a couple hours passed out.
Bit dismayed people in comments are focused on Ryanair or air travel in general.
It’s never appropriate to be drunk and disorderly in public, especially if you are being a problem for staff. Doesn’t matter if you are frustrated, or delayed.
Agree, but it’s not on Ryanair to police that and should be at the discretion of the bar like it is everywhere else. If a bar overserves someone, fine them. If someone is unruly boarding or on a plane, either prevent them from boarding or ban them going forward and make the punishment hurt. There are plenty of people capable of drinking a handful of alcoholic beverages and functioning in public.
Is it the alcohol that causes people to be disorderly or all the BS that airlines throw at them. It’s equally as inappropriate to constantly prod people.
Drunk or not, it is never appropriate to harass staff or interfere with a flight
It’s also never appropriate to cancel flights then refuse to reimburse passengers for hotel stays due to said cancelation, lose luggage and refuse to refund or reimburses for the lost luggage.
Problem: Airports have multiple bars and lounges. There’s no way to enforce that limit.
You could tie it to your ticket like a punch card. When the bar does the standard Id check they’d also check your boarding pass and check if the name is the same then mark it / digitally update it. Even if they don’t do a limit at the airport it would still be good to let the attendants on the flight know “alright this guy’s already had 5 beers, don’t serve him anything on the flight”
