You cannot fly with more than 10 kg … but you can take lots of alcohol.

Do you think drunk air passengers could affect tourism standards?

A Ryanair plane was forced on Tuesday (September) to deviate from its route between the Scottish city of Glasgow and the Spanish island of Ibiza to land in France, Beauvais Airport, about 80 miles from Paris. The reason for this forced landing was 14 Scottish passengers, who were drunk and presented a risk to flight safety.

The pilot’s decision was firm, mainly because in August another plane of the same airline experienced a similar situation while covering another route between Scotland and Ibiza. On this occasion, the staff threatened to land in Paris and leave the 30 passengers who were totally drunk, had insulted and threatened some cabin crew, and had vandalized furniture.

However, the flight reached its destination, where Spanish police boarded the plane, handcuffed themselves to the ring leaders and confiscated several bottles they had purchased in duty free shops in Scotland, before the departure to Spain.

In the most recent incident, the Ryanair pilot carried out his threat and the plane was diverted to France, where the French police gave them a special reception, escorting them off the flight they had ruined for the other passengers.

Apparently, happens often with groups of passengers coming mainly from the UK and Ireland, bound for Ibiza.

The strange thing is, that staff are so aware of any excess weight (you cannot take more than a 10 kg package), … yet are quite happy to allow a group of passengers who are obviously drunk and laden with bottles, onto the plane.

So, after reading what happened on these Ryanair flights – and on others, too – do you think this kind of behaviour affects tourism standards? What do you think about the policy of letting inebriated passengers on board, yet fussing about luggage weight? Should airlines be thinking of new policies? Or not?

Les Roches Blog

Susana