Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has said he is prepared to introduce a two-drink limit on his planes – if the same rule is applied to airport bars.
His call for alcohol restrictions comes after a “spike” in violent disorder among passengers over the summer.
Mr O’Leary told Sky News last month that Ibiza was one of the worst-affected destinations.
On Sunday, a Ryanair flight from Manchester to Ibiza was diverted to Toulouse in France after a group of passengers became disruptive.
Asked by Sky News if he would restrict passengers to two alcoholic drinks, Mr O’Leary said he would be “happy to do it tomorrow”.
He added: “If the price of putting a drink limit on the airport, where the problem is being created, is putting a drink limit on board the aircraft, we’ve no problem with that.
“The real issue is how do we stop these people getting drunk at airports particularly as, like this summer, we’ve had a huge spike in air traffic control delays.
“They’re getting on board with too much alcohol in their system. If we identify them as being drunk on board, we don’t serve them alcohol. But that doesn’t solve the problem.”
The Ryanair’s boss was speaking ahead of the company’s annual meeting in Dublin, where he told shareholders passenger traffic was on target to grow by 8% to 200 million this year.
Mr O’Leary also repeated his call for Martin Rolfe, the boss of Nats – the air traffic controller firm for many of the UK’s biggest airports – to be sacked over chaos at Gatwick Airport last summer.
“He’s demonstrated over a number of years that he’s incompetent,” Mr O’Leary claimed.
“It keeps breaking down as recently as last week, short-staffed at Gatwick. The Gatwick airlines had to cancel about 60 flights on Sunday.
“These repeatedly happen every summer. It’s not acceptable that someone who keeps delivering failure stays in his job. He should be dismissed.”
Nats…
