Michael O'leary urges airport bars to ban early morning pints
michael o'leary wants airport bars to stop serving alcohol at five or six o'clock in the morning. The Ryanair chief said he does not understand why anyone is being served beer at that hour and argued airport licensing rules should change.
He said Ryanair is being forced to divert flights almost daily because of drunken, aggressive passengers. O'Leary said those passengers often drink in airport bars for hours before boarding, then create problems in the air.
O'Leary's airport bar call
O'Leary said there should be no alcohol served at airports outside those licensing hours. He also said Ryanair is reasonably responsible with drinks and rarely serves a passenger more than two drinks onboard.
The issue is not new for him. He said he has been calling for a two-drink per-person limit for many years, and he said drug use has entered the alcoholic mix too, which he believes makes the behavior worse because passengers then want to fight.
Flights to Ibiza, Alicante and Tenerife
Airport bars do not currently have to follow the same licensing rules as bars outside airports. That gap has drawn criticism after The Times reported that airport bars are accused of profiting from pre-flight drinking and shifting the problem onto airlines.
The report said flights from Britain to Ibiza, Alicante and Tenerife have been particularly problematic. It also noted that Stephen Blofield was recently jailed for becoming abusive on a Ryanair flight from Poland to Bristol.
Joseph McCabe and cabin crew
Another case cited in the reporting involved Joseph McCabe, a former soldier who was jailed last year after sexually assaulting four Jet2 cabin crew during a flight to Tenerife. He groped and slapped the buttocks of two flight attendants before grabbing a third around the waist and attempting to hug a fourth.
O'Leary said changing airport alcohol rules would support Ryanair and other airlines by helping cut aggressive behavior in the skies. For passengers passing through airport bars, the immediate question is whether early-morning service can stay as it is when airlines say the disruptions are arriving almost daily.
