Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary is right, airports should not serve alcohol in the morning - Andrew Vine
A WORD you might not have heard before will feature in the conversations of airline staff in the next few weeks as the holiday season gets into full swing – “floozing”.
It’s an ingenious mash-up of “flying” and “boozing” that describes perfectly the drunks who stagger onto aircraft having sunk a skinful in the departure lounge and too often turn a flight into a nightmare for crew and passengers.
It was introduced to my vocabulary by a cabin crew member who flies from Leeds Bradford International Airport, and for whom floozing is the most problematic part of her job, resulting in abuse, arguments and sometimes unscheduled landings so that waiting police can drag disruptive passengers off.
The boss of Ryanair, Michael O’Leary, knows all about floozing, and what it means to his company, which is having to divert a flight almost every day as a consequence.
That’s why last week he called for airports to stop serving alcohol before
morning flights, saying: “It’s becoming a real challenge for all airlines. I fail to understand why anybody in airports bars is serving people at five or six-o-clock in the morning. Who needs to be drinking beer at that time?”
Who indeed? Mr O’Leary is spot-on. It’s high time to end the early-morning booze-ups, which are resulting in problems – even injury – for airline staff and fear among other passengers.
I recall with a shudder being caught in the middle of an argument between a drunken stag party on a flight to Spain from Leeds Bradford that took off at about 7am.
They were divided between the row of seats in front of me and that behind, and fell out over who had drunk most of a bottle of vodka they’d somehow smuggled on board.
It was horribly unnerving to be trapped by this foul-mouthed row raging over the heads of the three of us on the row, as fighting-mad drunks stood up shouting abuse and making the sort of threats at 8am you’d expect to hear when pubs and clubs turn out at midnight or later.
The captain had to leave his cabin and threaten to divert the aircraft for an unscheduled landing to restore order, but the simmering tension for the remainder of the flight set everybody’s nerves on edge.
As the plane landed, there was a collective sigh of relief from the other passengers at being able to get out of the confined space and away from these yobs.
It’s a familiar scenario to anyone who works in aviation, and matters are getting
worse. Mr O’Leary said that 10 years ago, perhaps one Ryanair flight a week had to be diverted because of trouble on board, and now it’s almost daily.
Figures from the Civil Aviation Authority back him up. Across all airlines, there
are now 400 more disruptive incidents every year than a decade ago, and a great deal of responsibility for that rests with the airports and bars cashing in on the early-morning trade.
We have a worrying drinking culture in this country anyway, and turning up at any airport for an early-morning flight reveals one of its most revolting manifestations, with bars full of people swilling down pints or knocking back shots of spirits at 6am because they’re in a holiday mood.
Stag and hen parties are often the worst, because getting paralytic is part of the revelries anyway, so making an early start has become a ritual.
It really is no surprise that this drinking so early, when people are simply not used to having alcohol, results in problems for cabin crew and passengers a couple of hours later.
Mr O’Leary was right when he said airports are exporting problems of drunkenness to the airlines.
It’s extraordinary that in an era when airports won’t let you carry a bottle of
water through security checks, they are then prepared to profit from selling unlimited drinks to people who could potentially endanger aircraft, their passengers and crew.
It’s time to put a stop to it. Prohibiting the sale of alcohol before midday would make a huge difference for the better and not be of the slightest inconvenience to the overwhelming majority of passengers who just want to relax and enjoy their flight while looking forward to a first glass of something in the sun when they arrive.
The bars can still make money from soft drinks and food in the mornings, and then start serving alcohol at a time of day when people are more accustomed to it and less likely to go crazy as a result.
Passengers and crew should not have their flights made into ordeals because of drunkenness, and if airports have to take a hit to their profits to make that happen, so be it. Floozing is a word that could be lost from the language of flying without any regrets.