Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has put the ball in the court of airport pubs by offering to introduce his own two-drink limit if they agree to do the same.
O’Leary decried a rise in violence on his routes over the Summer, pointing the finger at airport pubs sending passengers off to their flights highly intoxicated.
He called for the Labour Government to introduce a two-drink limit at airport pubs, which he views as the source of the problem. O’Leary also pointed to the rise in drug use among passengers as a driver of in-flight violence.
Amid pushback from Wetherspoons pub mogul Sir Tim Martin, O’Leary has called pub landlords’ bluffs by vowing to introduce his own limit, adding he would be “happy to do it tomorrow.”
"If the price of putting a drink limit on the airport, where the problem is being created, is putting a drink limit on board the aircraft, we've no problem with that,” O’Leary told Sky News.
"The real issue is how do we stop these people getting drunk at airports particularly as, like this summer, we've had a huge spike in air traffic control delays.
"They're getting on board with too much alcohol in their system. If we identify them as being drunk on board, we don't serve them alcohol. But that doesn't solve the problem."
O’Leary’s calls for a two-drink limit riled up Martin, the founder and chairman of Wetherspoons, which has pubs dotted across the U.K.’s major airports.
Martin, the founder and chairman of Wetherspoons, defended measures his pub had taken to limit the amount of alcohol consumed by his jet-setting customers while taking a jab at O’Leary.
“We’ve had no complaints about our pubs from the airport authorities or airlines that I’m aware of in recent years,” Martin told the Times.
“Years ago we stopped selling ‘shooters’ at airports, as well as ‘double-up’ offers. Ryanair in contrast offers a discount on Irish whiskey if a double is ordered,” Martin said.
O’Leary, who has not mentioned Martin or Wetherspoons during his campaigning, appears to have called his bluff.
“The airports of course are opposed to it and say that their bars don’t serve drunken passengers. But they do serve the relatives of the drunken passenger,” O’Leary previously told the Telegraph.
Martin also pointed out that of the particular problem case airports O’Leary namechecked—Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, and Edinburgh—Wetherspoons only has a branch in Edinburgh.
Still, air rage appears to be a problem that isn’t going away, with party destinations like Ibiza and Ayia Napa presenting the biggest challenge for Ryanair.
O’Leary has said in-flight violence occurred at a rate of once per week on his flights over the Summer.
Last week, an Ibiza-bound Ryanair flight from Manchester was diverted to Toulouse after passengers became disruptive.
