Two of the most outspoken business figures in the U.K. and Ireland, Wetherspoons founder Sir Tim Martin and Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary, are coming to blows over efforts to stop a rapid rise in in-flight violence.
Ryanair boss O’Leary has lamented an increase in air rage this summer, with in-flight attacks occurring on a Ryanair plane once a week. He is calling for a two-drink limit per passenger at airports to curb a rise in drunk passengers boarding his flights.
O’Leary regards airport pubs as the biggest problem, and gave a nod to Wetherspoon’s and other pubs’ culpability in rising disorder in the skies.
“The airports of course are opposed to it and say that their bars don’t serve drunken passengers. But they do serve the relatives of the drunken passenger,” O’Leary told the Telegraph.
However, Wetherspoons chairman Martin, the boss of one of the U.K.’s largest pub chains, has hit back at the idea that airport pubs are to blame for rising violence in the skies.
“We’ve had no complaints about our pubs from the airport authorities or airlines that I’m aware of in recent years,” Martin told the Times.
Instead he suggested Ryanair make moves to change its in-flight alcohol policy, after Wetherspoons scrapped shots including Jägerbombs from its airport menus.
“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,” Martin said.
Wetherspoons has become hugely popular in the U.K. for its famously low alcohol prices in the same way that Ryanair has acquired the title of Europe’s biggest airline on the back of cut-price airfares.
Wetherspoons has pubs located in several airport lounges across the U.K., including its biggest pop-up at London Stansted Airport. The group also announced this week it would be opening a flagship £2.8 million pub in London’s Waterloo train terminus to rival craft-beer chain BrewDog’s £5.8 million bar in the iconic station.
However, out of the pubs listed by O’Leary as being problem cases—those at the airports of Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, and Edinburgh—Wetherspoons only has a chain in Edinburgh.
Air rage
The U.K. is regarded as having a particular problem within Europe when it comes to intoxicated and unruly passengers, who travel to “party destinations” like Ibiza, Amsterdam, or Ayia Napa and enjoy starting their festivities in the airport lounge.
Last year, the trend prompted Amsterdam to launch a “Stay Away” campaign aimed at young British men traveling to the city for sex and drugs tourism.
O’Leary, who is calling on the Labour government to impose a two-drink limit at airports, says the rise in drug use among passengers has created a new challenge for his airline.
“In the old days people who drank too much would eventually fall over or fall asleep. But now those passengers are also on tablets and powder,” O’Leary said.
“It’s the mix. You get much more aggressive behavior that becomes very difficult to manage. And it’s not directed just at the crew. Passengers fighting with each other is now a growing trend on board the aircraft.”
Several instances of unruly in-flight behavior have been reported over the summer. In July, a British passenger was handed a one-year suspended prison sentence for touching a female Ryanair flight attendant’s behind and breasts “in a lewd way” on a flight from Newcastle to Palma.
O’Leary said Ryanair has had to ban passengers from bringing water bottles on planes because they have proven popular vessels for clear spirits like vodka.
“It’s not that easy for airlines to identify people who are inebriated at the gate, particularly if they are boarding with two or three others.
“As long as they can stand up and shuffle they will get through. Then when the plane takes off we see the misbehavior.”
