The BBC's Panorama yesterday broadcast a report entitled Plane Drunk. It revealed that arrests of passengers suspected of being drunk at UK airports and on flights have risen by over 50% in a year. Between February 2016 and February this year the number was 397. Over the previous twelve months there were 255.
Transport
UK arrests for air travel drunkenness up 50%
Also in News
- Spain wants Britons to show they have 113.40 euros, £97, per day for their holidays
- Major security alert at Mallorca airport, surprise landing of flights from Morocco and Namibia
- Big changes on the horizon when Britons travel to Mallorca
- Over two hours for Britons to get through Palma airport queues
- Watch those prices in Mallorca
8 comments
To be able to write a comment, you have to be registered and logged in
I have flown from Southampton to Palma by Volotea. They come round the cabin once with the drinks trolley. No problem,whereas TUI are pushing drinks sales for most of the flight, so who is to blame?
Palma has millions of tourists arriving from the UK every year. A handful of arrests or serious incedents involving drunken passengers. So lets get real. As a percentage it would be in the noise region. I have been travelling regularly from Edinburgh to Mallorca for 20 years and never seen any trouble either at the airport or on the plane. I will be coming in three weeks and I'm already looking forward to a couple of red wines on the plane. Cheers
Re my comment below, I typed refusal or failure of breath test = refusal to board etc.....It should read making their own way to ' their destination' etc.........
Stop the sale and consumption of all alcohol on board aircraft. At the boarding gate anyone who smells of alcohol takes a breath test, if they fail the test or refuse to take the test then simply they do not board and are left at the airport to make their own way back to uk at their expense. It will cause problems to start with but making a zero tolerance stance by ALL airlines will hopefully get the message across to those who are out to embarass not only themselves but their family and friends also other passengers, some of whom are nervous enough flying without these mindless people being total idiots.
It is easy to solve as suggested by the comments already made, but there is no desire to solve it by the airports or the airlines who make a lot of profit out of alcohol sales. It is up to them to enforce their own rules and regulations and use the powers they already have to prevent drunk people from boarding planes.
2 pints of beer at 30000feet would be the equivalent of 4 on the ground. Stop selling smaller bottles of sprits, up to 750ml, as these are too easy to get mixed with drinks. Stamp any boarding passes with all alcohol purchased. Ok, a lot of people are now going paperless, and a solution would have to be found for this. I do enjoy local Majorca wine, and take back to UK bottles to have a nice drink later.
Given the fact that in an emergency,anybody who has had more than two pints of beer or two glasses of wine can endanger the aircraft and it's passengers,it's high time the amount of alcohol you can drink before boarding an aircraft and while on board was restricted to two pints or two glasses of wine or it's equivalent,anybody who needs more than that needs to seriously look at the amount they are drinking anyway. Anybody that turns up at the airport and has clearly already had more alcohol than that should be refused boarding.
Nothing is being done to stop the drunken behavior of these "Stag " and " Hen " parties. Cabin Crew are powerless to deal with their offences. Have police to meet them on arrival. Emergency landing fees of £5,000.00 to be paid by the offenders. Any offender to be barred from flying with any airline.Stop Alcohol Sales on Aircraft. Breathalyze drunks before boarding. Warning signs posted all around the Airport.Stamp Boarding Cards. Limited to two drinks.