The Debate: Should airports ban early-morning pints?
Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has had enough of drunkards on flights, but is banning 5am airport pints the answer? We hear both sides of the argument, including from Wetherspoon supremo Tim Martin, in this week’s Debate
YES: The easy availability of alcohol in a high-pressure environment is genuinely dangerous
Yes, early morning airport drinks should be banned, and as someone who works daily with people whose relationship with alcohol has caused serious harm, I do not say that lightly.
Airports are not bars. They are high pressure, high anxiety environments where many people are already operating under stress, sleep deprivation and emotional strain. For someone with an underlying dependency or a problematic relationship with alcohol, the combination of those triggers alongside the easy availability of drinks at 5am is genuinely dangerous.
The argument that people should simply exercise personal responsibility sounds reasonable until you understand how addiction actually works. Alcohol is not just a lifestyle choice for a significant portion of the population. It is a coping mechanism, and airports are precisely the kind of environment that activates that need. Travel anxiety, fear of flying, disrupted routines and the sense that normal rules do not apply when you are in transit all lower the barriers to drinking more than you intended.
We also cannot ignore the wider consequences. Disruptive and aggressive behaviour on flights has been rising steadily, and alcohol is a consistent factor. Cabin crew are not trained mental health professionals or security officers. They should not be managing the fallout from a policy that prioritises revenue over passenger safety.
Removing early morning alcohol sales is not about being puritanical. It is about recognising that some environments require a duty of care that goes beyond profit. We would not serve alcohol at 5am in most other public settings, and there is no compelling reason airports should be the exception.
Jessica Aloise is an addiction and mental health expert at Mandala Healing Center
NO: Ryanair’s proposals will swap supervised pubs for a worse unregulated alternative
In 1979, when Wetherspoon first opened, the “on-trade” (i.e. pubs, clubs and hotels) accounted for 90 per cent of beer sales. So, if governments wanted to control drinking, they just needed to regulate pubs.
Thus, for example, regulations requiring pubs to close for a couple of hours every afternoon, introduced in WWI to encourage munitions workers back to their factories, were only repealed in the 1980s. However, times have changed and the “off-trade” (mainly supermarkets) has taken half of pubs’ beer trade since 2000.
Therein lies the flaw in Michael O’Leary of Ryanair’s suggestions.
Consumption of beer and other drinks in pubs has many advantages: CCTV coverage; the presence of an experienced and trained licensee; supervision of licensed premises by the police and other authorities; the ready availability of food, coffee and other non-alcoholic drinks – and so on.
Indeed, Wetherspoon has traded at airports since 1992 and it has never been suggested to us that our customers have caused problems on flights. Although pints before early-morning flights gain wide publicity, the reality is that two-thirds of Wetherspoon’s airport sales comprise food, much of which is consumed alongside a drink, and non-alcoholic drinks.
So, if passengers want a drink before travelling by plane, and many do, and airport pubs are stopped from serving them, there is nothing the authorities can do to stop them buying and consuming drinks from supermarkets before getting to the airport, or “landside” before entering the departure lounge.
In addition, many of the problems stem from incoming flights, as Mr O’Leary agrees, which Ryanair’s proposals would do nothing to prevent.
No one advocates excessive consumption or bad behaviour – but Ryanair’s proposals risk swapping supervised pub consumption for a worse, unregulated alternative; a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
Tim Martin is the founder and chairman of Wetherspoon
THE VERDICT
Downing five pints before a 7am flight: a great British tradition or a serious security concern? Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary recently made his thoughts on the matter very clear, calling for early-morning drinking to be banned in airports amid a rise of antisocial behaviour. Indeed, according to the airline chief, the budget Irish carrier is forced to divert an average of nearly one flight every day due to bad behaviour.
It’s hard to argue that’s not quite the problem, and Ms Aloise is right to question why airports are exempt from the rules that govern other public spaces. The answer, really, is somewhat vibes-spaced, with airports treated as operating within their own timezone exempt from the expectations of the landside world. It’s not entirely sensical, but it is special and, CityAM thinks, something to be protected. Nobody wants a dangerous drunk on their flight, which is why there are already provisions against it (offences are punishable with up to two years in prison). But a pre-flight mimosa to get in the holiday spirit? That we can only support.