As you don’t have to wreck the party to have a good time we agree with Ryanair you’ve nothing Toulouse making rowdy fliers pay.
The budget airline changed the face of air travel by making it affordable for everyone.
All of which meant, of course, that everyone had more money to spend on airport drinks.
And even more opportunity when we were required to turn up more than two hours before our flights because of extra security.
Which all led to the staple of a modern holiday… airport drinks.
Merci bien to the French
Of course overgrown big kids will abuse it for the rest of the class.
And flights crews increasingly face the threat of rowdy drunken passengers imperilling everyone’s safety way up in the clouds.
And pilots forced to reroute to protect everyone on board.
With the costs that involves which inevitably get passed on in increased fares.
And what of the miscreants, well this is where our French amis have stepped forward.
Ryanair takes the lead
With Toulouse Criminal Court fining two unruly passengers a combined €10,000 (expensive round) and 10-month suspended sentences.
After they disrupted a flight from London Stansted to Ibiza last year.
Forcing 184 passengers and six crew to divert to Toulouse.
Now all of this feeds into Ryanair’s bold moves to alter our relationship with drinking and flying.
With the airline arguing that bars and restaurants should restrict passengers to two drinks each.
Which may seem draconic but should be enough to get the party started.
While leaving the serving of alcohol at the discretion of flight crew also feels eminently sensible to all.
Happy drinkers
Of course, we’re no saints, and have to reveal that we circumvented the cabin staff’s rules on a transatlantic flight from London to JFK.
And took shuttles back and forth to raid the crew’s stash behind the curtain next to the loo.
But here’s the rub, we were daft kids and did not disrupt our fellow passengers other than the hundred times we got out of our seats.
So the takeaway is that by civilising airport drinks and airplane drinking we can all enjoy ourselves.
And enjoy our flights and allow cabin staff to do their jobs, which is after all to look after us.
And get us safely to our destination and not hundreds of miles away in a different country.