Alcohol lies behind much of the trouble on flights. Photo / Getty Images
Alcohol lies behind much of the trouble on flights. Photo / Getty Images
COMMENT:
In almost five decades of flying I have never seen a disruptive passenger, an out-of-control drunk or even heard an angry voice. It seems I have been lucky.
A survey by Which? Travel, the UK consumer magazine, found that 17 per cent of Ryanair passengers had witnessed shouting, drunkennessor verbal abuse by other passengers over the previous year.
Eight per cent had seen the same on Emirates and Virgin Atlantic flights. Questioned by Unite, the trade union, 87 per cent of cabin crew on UK-based airlines said they had seen drunk passengers behaving badly.
Is this primarily a British problem? The International Air Transport Association (IATA) says the number of disruptive passenger incidents worldwide has risen sharply. But in 2017, the last year for which it provides figures, there was only one disruptive incident for every 1,053 flights and, of those, 86 per cent were verbal outbursts that "can usually be brought to a successful conclusion by crew using de-escalation training".
The remainder were serious, involving physical aggression, damage to the aircraft or, in rare cases, attempts to enter the cockpit.
However rare or frequent, disruption in the air is frightening. Airline staff should not have to put up with it. Alcohol lies behind much of the trouble. IATA said it was a factor in 27 per cent of incidents and UK reports refer to it frequently.
What can be done? While the airlines complain about drunk passengers, they serve alcohol freely on some flights and profit from on-board drinks sales on others. The carriers respond that many passengers start drinking before they fly.
A survey by Alcohol Change UK found that one in five British holidaymakers started drinking at the airport. Sellers of drink airside in England are not subject to the licensing constraints that affect other pubs, such as restrictions on discounts and an obligation to enforce an age verification policy and seek local government approval for their opening hours.
According to a Home Office document, the laissez-faire attitude to airport drinking came from a sense of national embarrassment.
An alcohol ban may sound draconian, but people once felt the same about smoking on planes. Photo / Getty Images
In 1956, Harold Watkinson, the then-aviation minister, said foreign passengers travelling through UK airports found pub opening times bewildering "and one may forgive them if they do not always understand why it is that they cannot always obtain a drink". So airside outlets were told they could do pretty much what they wished.
Now the embarrassment is on the other side, with too many people availing themselves of this liberality. The UK government is consulting on whether to impose restrictions on departure lounge drinks. But if that happens, what of the executive lounges that provide booze for free?
Airlines have the right to refuse boarding to passengers who appear drunk but, as Somerville Hastings, an MP who opposed the airport exemption in 1956, observed, it can take a while for someone who has been drinking to show the signs. The passenger seems sober "because very little of the alcohol has at that time been absorbed . . . But, later, he develops the symptoms of intoxication and becomes a nuisance."
Here is one possible solution: ban alcohol everywhere — in the airport, in the lounges and on flights. Draconian? People felt the same once about banning smoking.
A booze ban wouldn't bother me. I barely drink, and never while flying. But I'm a liberal. While I welcomed the smoking ban because smoke gets everywhere, most people who drink on board don't trouble anyone.
A total ban seems a harsh restriction on the many for the sins of a few. So let's limit drinking — at the airport and in the air — and see how that goes.
