It is not every week that Michael O’Leary acquires a legion of fans for something he has said, but fair play to the Ryanair CEO. His call to curb alcohol consumption at airports landed well with a lot of people.

O’Leary wants passengers to be restricted to two drinks per journey to curb what he says is an increase in antisocial behaviour and violence.

“We don’t want to begrudge people having a drink. But we don’t allow people to drink-drive, yet we keep putting them up in aircraft at 33,000 feet,” he said, adding it was difficult for airlines to identify inebriated people at the gate, especially when boarding in a group.

But Sir Tim Martin, founder of JD Wetherspoon, says O’Leary is out of touch. He said there had been “no complaints about our pubs from the airport authorities or airlines” in “recent years”, adding Wetherspoons airport pubs no longer serve shots.

“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,” he said.

Ryanair identified four airports that airline staff find particularly problematic – Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh. I’d like to disagree but experience tells me it’s a fair cop.


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Why stop at curbing boozing when there are so many other annoyances once the flight is underway? I’d like to outlaw children booting the back of your seat, particularly when you’ve asked the so-called responsible adult with them to have a word, please.

I’d also ban people eating smelly sandwiches, people who take their shoes and socks off and pick their feet (true story), and people who put their seats back on a domestic flight.

While we are at it, the cheap headphones lot with their tinny racket can take a hike. Ditto the armrest hoggers, the leg spreaders, the snorers and the shouters.

In fact, let’s just ban people, full stop. Except for us, of course.