Ryanair renews call for pre-flight alcohol limit at airports

Kenny Jacobs, Ryanair’s chief marketing officer, reiterated to Irish broadcaster RTE on Monday (June 18) the airline’s belief there should be a two-drink limit per person before all flights.

Jacobs also raised the possibility of Ryanair banning the sale of alcohol on its flights before 10am.

His comments came after a Ryanair flight from Dublin to Ibiza was diverted to Paris on Saturday morning (June 16) due to a “drink-fuelled disturbance”, The Irish Times reports.

The Dublin Airport Authority has branded his comments “highly draconian” and said troublemakers were a “very, very small minority of airline travellers”.

Jacobs said the two-drink limit could be enforced through boarding cards.

He also used the incident to take another pot-shot at Europe’s air traffic control (ATC) strike chaos after Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary last week said the system was “on the verge of meltdown”.

Jacobs said with thousands of passengers either delayed or displaced due to the strikes, often stranded at airports for many hours, “some people were choosing to spend those hours at the bar”.

In a statement, the airline said: "It is incumbent on airports to introduce these preventative measures to curb excessive drinking and the problems it creates, rather than allowing passengers to drink to excess before their flights.

"It’s completely unfair airports can profit from the unlimited sale of alcohol to passengers and leave the airlines to deal with the safety consequences."

Last August, Ryanair called for a ban on the sale of alcohol in airport bars and restaurants before 10am, the mandatory use of boarding cards to limit drinks to two per passenger, and limiting the sale of alcohol in airport bars and restaurants to passengers during flight delays to two drinks.

Citing CAA data, Ryanair said there had been a 600% increase in disruptive passenger incidents in the UK between 2012 and 2016.