Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary calls for two-drink limit at airports as he condemns rowdy passengers

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary condemns air rageSource: The Independent

Transcript

00:00Let's talk about air rage, if we may. I understand that it's kind of an all-time high.

00:05What is Ryanair doing about it? And what would you like to be done more widely?

00:09I mean, we are seeing record numbers. We and most of the airlines around Europe are seeing a spike

00:14upwards, particularly this summer of disgruntled passengers on board. I think the real challenge

00:21is, one, flight delays are up at a record high this summer. So people are spending time in

00:25airports drinking before they board aircraft. And I think the critical thing is we've made

00:32submissions to the governments across Europe. We want two things. One, much more effective

00:37fines, fining passengers by the local magistrates when they're hauled off planes for disruptive

00:43behaviour. And two, we need to have a ban on airports not selling alcohol, but limiting the

00:48amount of alcohol that can be sold to any passenger to alcoholic drinks. So in the same way that you

00:53have to show your boarding pass when you go through duty-free to buy cigarettes or alcohol,

00:57we believe you should have to show your boarding pass to buy an alcoholic drink at a bar at an

01:01airport. And you shouldn't be serving more than two alcoholic drinks, particularly when flights

01:05are delayed. The real challenge is when flights are running late, this summer ATC delays are

01:11all-time high. Passengers tend to drink more alcohol, they become more inebriated, and that's

01:16not good news for when they're getting on board one, two, three-hour flights.