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.”
I saw “2 drink limit” and my stupid brain was like “how does this guy think a 2 drink minimum supposed to improve anything?”
Derp.
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.
I’ve never had an issue with a non-torch zippo lighter when going through TSA checks. Ive never had an issue with a zippo while going through airport security checks in Japan. I’ve had non-torch zippos confiscated while going through all the following airports: LHR, CDG, FRA, HAM, BCN, MAD.
Most airport security is theater sure, but the most egregious theatrics haven’t been from the TSA in my experience.
Return to trains!
Is this a meme I don’t understand, or are you actually comparing an international flight with your local bus?
“We should make it better”
Airlines:
Rest assured, they truly do want to get you through the airport and to your destination as soon as possible, it would be more profitable for them.
are you actually comparing an international flight with your local bus
Local flights have the same issues.
they truly do want to get you through the airport and to your destination as soon as possible, it would be more profitable for them
The airlines don’t run airports. Much of the slowdowns and hassles that occur there are caused by TSA security theater.
So run airports like buses, no security, people just rock up to the plane?
Just seems like a massive oversimplification of an insanely complex system, with no actual suggestion about how to achieve that.
Why do they spend so long building skyscrapers when building a residential home is much easier. They should just build skyscrapers like residential homes.
That’s how it worked for decades before 9/11.
Yep! And the vast majority of the TSA changes since then don’t actually accomplish anything. There is a reason I continue using the phrase security theater.
Thousands Standing Around
People get pissed at airports because they’re on holiday mode with their mates, it’s part of the holiday to have some beers at the airport. It’s these kind of passengers that will be the issue, it’s nothing to do with the design of the airport.
Ryan Air: No, it’s the airports that are wrong.
What’s the surcharge he’s got in mind for this idea?
Mandatory breath tests at the gate with additional fees to pay for every 0.01% over a certain limit (but if you pay up front you can get as pissed as you like)
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).
Not in the US. I’d be fine with it but I don’t know how they’d enforce it. Most of the rowdy people would just get their friends to buy them drinks, or hop from bar to bar at the airport. I doubt they’d make people take a breathalyzer before serving them.
Neither but here while there isn’t a ‘limit’ the flights only stock a set amount and flight crew can cut you off when they think you’ve had enough. I don’t think they give a shit if people manage to get drunk. I think largely the point is not having visibly drunk/disruptive people on planes or in airports. Which I kinda can understand.
In EU they will not sell you almost anything already if you don’t show your boarding pass. It is very easy to keep a drink counter per passenger.
Where? I have never experienced this before.
Schiphol in the Netherlands, Milan and Rome in Italy, also in some airport in London as I recall.
But thinking about it, some things like food and water at the food court I might have never been asked.
Oh well.
I don’t think I’ve ever experienced this while flying in the EU, and I’ve done my fair share of it, living here and all.
You only have to show your boarding pass for the tax breaks that come with traveling internationally.
When the Irish are telling you to cut down on the drinking, it might be time to cut down on the drinking.
I dunno…maybe get people through the fucking airport before they can get that drunk
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?
Maybe you’re right. But hand waving the problem away with a knee jerk comment about how this is just a greedy CEO making up a problem that doesn’t actually exist doesn’t really add much to the discussion, and that was what my comment was addressing - the many comments pretending people flying drunk isn’t an actual issue but instead an excuse to justify Ryanair’s other shenanigans.
I was going to say that this sounds like a very UK specific issue.
“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…
That is uncomprehendingly stupid
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.
We can do that while we’re waiting at the bar for our next pint.
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.
The pilots can come under the influence of a good time
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 isle
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.
Where are you flying that you’re doing 14 hours frequently?
I moved roughly halfway around the world from my hometown. Any time I want to see my family I fly 10-14 hours followed by a 3-5 hr connection. Just got back from a trip home that was 29 hours door to door, which was the first time since the pandemic that the airlines didn’t fuck me with delays and missed connections. The last two times were 40+ hours.
So once or twice a year?
I’m talking monthly or every couple weeks
Right, I only fly once or twice a year, but I’m not sure how frequency of flying relates to whether reclining a seat is acceptable on a long flight.
If you flew frequently you would understand
No…shape shifters?
Remember the lady who was acting crazy and thought the man sitting next to her was a shape shifter lol
Lol, I do not. She accused him of being a skin walker?
They have alcohol at airports? That’s so weird.
what else are you going to do while you wait for a 3 AM flight
The last time I flew, my flight was delayed 4 hours. 2 drinks per hour wouldn’t even put someone my size over the limit to operate a motor vehicle.
Fuck this guy.
People metabolize approximately 1 drink per hour. 8 drinks over 4 hours should still leave you pretty damn tipsy.
That’s a good rough estimate, but doesn’t account for varying factors, like gender and weight. It also makes assumptions about the alcohol content in your drinks.
For example, the usual BAC calculator assumes 1 serving is 0.6oz worth of straight alcohol. That equates to 1.5oz of 40% liquor, a 12oz beer that’s at 5%, or a 5oz glass of wine that’s at only 12%. So at my weight, two servings over an hour puts my BAC at just 0.03, which is under the limit to operate motor vehicles in many countries. To be clear, I NEVER drink and drive, even after just one drink. But I’m this hypothetical scenario, I’m quietly sitting down in a plane seat, not operating machinery.
Me and my buddies were flying for vacation and we were in an airport that does that already. Somewhere in the southwest. So you just go to different airport bars every two drinks. Bar hopping isn’t that brazen a concept.
Unless they start tying your purchases to your plane ticket, this just seems like it will create more mobile drunks. It would be nice if they actually enforced policies against people too drunk being allowed to board a plane. I’ve seen people that were very visibly drunk and loud walk right on.
I guess telling a super drunk person they can’t board is more likely to instigate an scene than just waving them onboard and hoping they pass out. Aside from being annoyingly loud and drunk, I was only ever on one flight where someone became a problem, and basically they got into a drunken yelling match with someone next to them.
They got moved to a seat in the back and told if they didn’t calm down for the rest of the flight, the police would be waiting for him. He grumbled about it and passed out.
Yes, but its easier to deal with them on the ground than on the plane.
Reading the article, I see why this is a problem to be addressed. At the same time, I’m not sure how in the world you would directly “fix” this other than outright banning unruly customers after they cause problems.
The best course of action might be to quietly work with restaurant managers in major airports to start watering down mixed drinks, and serve lower-gravity beer and wine, on heavy travel days. I’m mostly sure this is how amusement parks operate; they just need to consult with Disney or SixFlags on this one. The threat of airlines (or the airport) banning heavy restaurant customers might be motivation enough. That way, restaurants make more money, airlines have (maybe) less nonsense to deal with, and there’s no documented limit on beverages.
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.
I never really understood why bars are so popular in airports.
Why anyone would want to get heavily drunk before flying is beyond me.
I can maybe see this being a thing way back during the prop days when engines were ridiculously loud and travel was very tiring, but those days have been long.
If you’re really that bored even with access to modern technology, you’re probably better off taking a sleeping pill.
Yeah, I used to drink a lot but getting loaded before a flight just makes the whole ordeal so much less tolerable.
Yup. Getting drunk ON a plane is great. Getting drunk BEFORE a plane is no bueno.
Airport bars are crazy expensive too
I think drinking at airport bars can be fun. Everyone is on their way to somewhere else, no one is driving, so it can be really fun and chummy. Been drinking at an airport bar where a guy was buying everyone free rounds until the first person left for a flight. Pretty hilarious when a whole bar loudly booed a guy hustling off to his flight. 🤣