Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary wants to ban alcohol in airports in the morning, before regular restaurant and bar opening hours. The Irish low-cost airline reportedly has to divert a flight almost daily due to the behavior of some passengers.

In addition to the morning ban on alcohol before 10 a.m., he also advocates limiting each passenger to no more than 2 drinks at the airport, with those drinks checked via the boarding pass.

“Who needs a beer at that hour?”

“I absolutely don’t understand why people are being served in airport bars at five or six in the morning. Who needs a beer at that hour?” O’Leary told The Times. “Alcohol shouldn’t be served at airports at those hours.”

His call was primarily directed at Irish and British regulators. Bars and pubs in the UK and Ireland are generally only allowed to serve alcohol starting at 10 a.m., but airport bars are exempt from that rule, allowing them to serve beer as early as 5 or 6 a.m.

And cheap Ryanair flights from the UK to Spain, Greece, or Ireland (especially Dublin) have been popular for decades for stag and hen parties (bachelor and bachelorette parties). That combination has cemented the image of the “drunk Brit on the early flight to Benidorm” in popular culture.

But at the same time, the CEO also lashed out at the bars and restaurants at the airports themselves, which, according to him, “are all too happy to serve as much alcohol as these people want in the event of flight delays, because they know they can shift the blame onto the airlines afterward.”

Upward trend

Ryanair says it now must reroute a flight nearly every day due to inappropriate behavior on board, compared with about once a week previously. The Irish Aviation Authority also recorded no fewer than 197 reports of inappropriate passenger behavior in 2025, a 23% increase from the previous year. Nearly half of those cases were alcohol related.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) also explicitly states that the most alcohol related incidents are caused by alcohol consumed before the flight.

Ryanair had already announced in June that it would impose a €500 fine on “disruptive passengers whose behavior results in them being removed from the plane.” In at least one case, the airline has already taken legal action, seeking €15,000 in damages from a passenger who disrupted a 2024 flight from Dublin to Lanzarote.

And today, the Toulouse Criminal Court convicted two unruly passengers who disrupted Ryanair flight FR9251 from London Stansted to Ibiza on 17 May 2025, forcing over 184 passengers and 6 crew to divert to Toulouse after these two passengers became abusive towards fellow passengers and failed to comply with crew instructions. These disruptive passengers were found guilty, and both received suspended sentences of up to 10 months, with a combined penalty of over €10,000.

Not limited to Ryanair

The problem of drunk or intoxicated passengers is certainly not limited to Ryanair. Recently, two drunk passengers were arrested following a brawl on a Jet2 flight at Leeds Airport. And the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recorded a massive spike in inappropriate incidents following the COVID-19 lockdowns, peaking at 5,973 cases.

The FAA subsequently called for a zero-tolerance policy and banned visibly intoxicated passengers from boarding. The number of cases dropped sharply afterward, but the problem has never gone away.

The proposal only partially addresses the problem

Airport operators and catering establishments have traditionally opposed general alcohol restrictions, arguing that most travelers drink responsibly.

Airports often have their own house rules as well. Brussels Airport, for example, explicitly states in its house rules that alcoholic beverages may only be consumed in bars and restaurants, and that it is prohibited to be drunk, intoxicated, or under the influence of drugs at the airport.

The question is also whether O’Leary’s proposal to limit passengers at airports to a maximum of two alcoholic beverages per boarding pass is feasible, and whether removing that early window can solve real and specific problems stemming from the fact that some airport food and beverage establishments are open 24 hours a day.

No one stops passengers from drinking at home before departure, buying duty-free alcohol and opening it on board, or continuing to drink heavily after 10 a.m. before an afternoon flight, let alone consuming unlimited free alcohol in the lounge.

The European Cockpit Association, the European pilots’ union, therefore, advocates for stricter enforcement and better legislation rather than a simple alcohol limit.

The industry organization Airports Council International Europe states that enforcement should target individuals rather than a blanket ban, but has agreed to enter discussions with airlines and duty-free retailers.