Ryanair announces onboard booze rules

In a bid to stop rowdy behaviour on flights to popular summer holiday destinations, budget airline Ryanair is cracking down on passengers over-indulging on duty free drinks when up in the air.

The notorious reputation of ‘boozy Brits abroad’ is well-known, with Amsterdam’s city council recently launching a campaign to deter UK visitors planning to go there for heavy drinking.

Drunk tourists aren’t just a problem in holiday destinations – they’re also an issue en route.

According to an email sent by the airline to prospective passengers to Spain, those flying with Ryanair from the UK to Alicante, Barcelona, Ibiza, Malaga, Palma and Tenerife South can expect to see strict rules enforced concerning bringing bottles of alcohol onto the aeroplane in a bid to discourage illicit binge drinking:

“Any alcohol purchased in airport shops or elsewhere must be packed carefully in a suitable item of cabin baggage, which will be tagged at the gate and then placed in the aircraft hold free of charge if you have purchased priority boarding or have a small piece of hand luggage…If the bag is unsuitable for placing in the hold (e.g. plastic bag) then customers will be required to dispose of the alcohol in the bins provided. Boarding gates will be carefully monitored and customers showing any signs of anti-social behaviour or attempting to conceal alcohol will be denied travel without refund or compensation.”

Earlier reports from several news outlets suggested that the airline was going to be imposing a ban on duty free alcoholic beverages being brought onboard altogether.

However, Ryanair later released a statement clarifying that, despite the earlier email, alcohol does not have to go in the hold: “We are not ‘banning’ or ‘confiscating’ duty free alcohol at boarding gates. As per Ryanair’s T&Cs, passengers can carry duty-free alcohol onboard but must not consume it during the flight.”

Perhaps passengers should follow science, as well as the rules, and rather than drinking duty free purchases on board, they should order a Bloody Mary from the trolley.

The challenges of bringing drinks on airlines could be set to disappear in the next few years with the introduction of technology at UK airports that makes the 100ml liquid limit redundant.