A second reason I believe the idea is misguided is because, too often, airports aren’t like this. They are not fun. They are crowded, stressful, labyrinthine, bureaucratic and full of screaming babies or passengers with 98 items of oversized luggage.
What do you need to de-stress from all this? Yes, a drink, and maybe four drinks, not two. As for O’Leary’s complaint that the drinking gets out of hand when planes are delayed by 10 hours, has he considered not having planes delayed by 10 hours? Maybe that would sort the problem better than his proposed cancelling of our tickets if we have a third pint of Staropramen.
A final reason I believe O’Leary’s proposal is wrong-headed is this: it simply won’t work. People will drink before they arrive, or they will sneak in vodka or gin as water into Departures (how do you police that?), or they will turn to the “pills and powders” he already says are a growing problem.
Or – and this may particularly impact the opinion of Ryanair’s ultra-capitalist chief executive – airports that don’t have restrictions, and don’t care about Ryanair, will gain customers and grow, and airports that do inspect your spritzers will lose custom and shrink, and eventually Ryanair might not make such big profits. Or go out of business. I imagine O’Leary won’t be hugely keen on that.
No, the answer is boringly simple. Airports make lots of money from booze, so let them spend some of it on policing – strictly – the behaviour of the lairy minority. Chuck a few boozy louts out of the airport as a stern deterrent. But don’t ruin the fun of the many because of the sins of the few.