Flights are cracking down on alcohol consumption on board planes by banning passengers from drinking any beer, wine and spirits bought in duty-free. The strict rules come as airlines try to reduce inebriated air rage incidents. Under new measures, any alcohol purchased at airport duty-free will need to be packed into a sealed plastic bag. These special bags are branded with the instruction: “Do not open alcohol purchases until your final destination.”
Plane passengers will be unable to open them, as only scissors or knives could cut through, both of which are banned from hand luggage, reported The Times.
The rules are being implemented by World Duty Free, which is the sole provider of duty-free stores at most major UK airports, including Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Manchester and Birmingham.
This is the first time passengers have been actively barred from drinking alcohol bought in duty free.
However, airlines have previously advised passengers to not drink airport-bought booze on board.
Gatwick Airport is also clamping down on unruly drunkenness by prohibiting the sale of miniature bottles.
The London hub has also banned shots from being drunk in airport bars.
According to figures from the Civil Aviation Authority, 422 serious drunken incidents were reported in 2017 – a number which has doubled since 2014.
However, airlines claim that the real figure is much worse – into several thousands – as only the worst cases are ever recorded.
A World Duty Free spokeswoman told The Times that it “voluntarily took the step of introducing sealed bags” for any alcohol bought in their shops.
She said: “Where [serious disruptive incidents] do happen, the impact can be serious for fellow passengers, employees working in the air and at the airport.
“The industry is working together to tackle this problem and make disruptive behaviour such as this socially unacceptable.
“The vast majority of our customers understand that the alcohol we sell can only be consumed when they reach their destination, and this message is already clearly conveyed at tills, on receipts and on bags.”
The extent of the problem was highlighted just this weekend when two men fought in a ‘drunken’ brawl on a Ryanair flight.
Ryanair passengers from Glasgow to Tenerife saw their flight disrupted by an in-flight brawl “with lots of blood”.
A traveller on the budget airline captured the violent scenes unfold on board the journey, on March 16.
He told how two males had locked horns over the girlfriend of one of the male passengers, who was not wearing any shoes.
