Travellers have slammed an airline CEO who proposed a new rule against drinking before flying.
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary proposed a new policy for the airline which would see a two-drink limit imposed on passengers in airport bars before boarding their flight.
This didn’t go down well with the public. “Don’t you dare take away my airport drinking, Ryan,” one person wrote on Reddit.
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O’Leary says that having a drink limit would protect the safety of the crew, pilots, and other passengers.
“We don’t want to begrudge people having a drink,” O’Leary said last week, per The Telegraph. “But we don’t allow people to drink-drive, yet we keep putting them up in aircraft at 33,000 feet.”
“In the old days people who drank too much would eventually fall over or fall asleep. But now those passengers are also on tablets and powder,” he said.
“It’s the mix. You get much more aggressive behaviour that becomes very difficult to manage. And it’s not directed just at the crew. Passengers fighting with each other is now a growing trend on board the aircraft.”
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Despite his rationale, passengers weren’t pleased at all with the proposition, saying that it would “take away the one thing that’s even remotely enjoyable in airports.”
Some people even rely on a small amount of alcohol to fly. “I would be unable to fly. I get very severe anxiety when flying and have found a couple of drinks really helps me through,” wrote one person on Reddit.
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One person also pointed out that the alcohol isn’t the problem, it’s the individuals.
“Or, maybe just have an absolute zero tolerance and ban anyone getting violent on flights from being ever being allowed to fly or leave the country again,” they argued, writing that plenty of passengers “don’t start causing fights and getting violent when drunk.”
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However, not everyone is pro-booze. In a recent 9Travel poll of our readers, 41 per cent said that intoxicated passengers are the number one thing that is totally unacceptable on planes.
One person said they’d love for alcohol-free flights to be introduced.
“Some of us do not drink alcohol and don’t want to be bothered by drunken fools,” they wrote.
Another said that when people are drunk and disorderly on planes, it’s the cabin crew’s fault. “They need to know when enough is enough.”