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Flying is usually not an incredibly enjoyable experience, but many travelers turn to a tried-and-true strategy of making their journey more bearable by downing some booze during it. That includes plenty of people who pregame their flight at an airport bar regardless of the time of day, but one airline’s CEO is pushing to stop those establishments from serving alcohol in the early hours of the morning.
In 1939, American Airlines ushered in a new era of travel when it opened the first-ever airport lounge, the Admirals Club, at LaGuardia in New York City. The invitation-only sanctuary boasted a number of amenities, including a fully stocked bar where flyers could help themselves to champagne and cocktails before taking to the skies.
Airport bars and restaurants became an increasingly common sight in the decades that followed, and we eventually reached a point where every major hub transformed into a veritable mall offering travelers a wide variety of options to kill time and spend money after arriving at a terminal.
Airports are also a lot like casinos in the sense that the concept of top really ceases to exist when you enter one, and nothing highlights that reality quite like walking into an airport bar shortly after (or even before) the sun rises and encountering the many people who’ve decided to help themselves to an alcoholic beverage at an hour that would be deemed “problematic” outside of its confines.
That is an almost sacred ritual for many flyers, but one man who wields plenty of influence in the air travel space wants to bring it to an end.
The CEO of Ryanair wants to ban airports from serving drinks in the morning
Ryanair is basically the European equivalent of the now-defunct Spirit Airlines, as the Ireland-based budget carrier prides itself on the low fares it uses to lure in flyers while nickel-and-diming passengers with added fees for seat selection, checked luggage, and even the water you have to pay for on the plane.
Michael O’Leary has served as its CEO since 1994, and the outspoken executive has been no stranger to controversy over comments downplaying global warming, a proposal to institute a so-called “fat tax” on larger passengers, and a suggestion that airport security should target “males of a Muslim persuasion” over links to terrorist attacks.
Now, he has managed to ruffle some feathers by turning his attention to airport bars, as The Times reports he is pushing for regulation concerning the hours they’re allowed to sling booze.
O’Leary cited the intoxicated flyers he says force Ryanair to divert at least one flight on a daily basis while arguing airport bars should be subjected to the same licensing rules as ones that don’t sit behind a security checkpoint, saying:
“I fail to understand why anybody in airport bars is serving people at five or six o’clock in the morning. Who needs to be drinking beer at that time?
There should be no alcohol served at airports outside licensing hours. We have been calling for many years for a limit of two drinks per person per airport, why don’t you limit people by boarding pass?”
I have never encountered an airport watering hole that was more hopping than the Garden Terrace Bar in Dublin at 5 A.M. on a Saturday a few years back. Based on that scene, O’Leary will be facing an uphill battle in the country where Ryanair is based, and I find it hard to imagine that message is going to resonate with flyers in other places it serves.