Staff Reporter
BRITS flying with Ryanair from the UK to Spain are to have their booze privileges severely curtailed after a spate of bad behaviour ten kilometres up in the sky.
Passengers will now be punished for drinking duty-free alcohol onboard the plane, and anyone caught attempting to smuggle it in will be barred from the flight.
Prospective passengers received an email from the airline outlining the stringent regulations for those flying with Ryanair from the UK to Alicante, Barcelona, Ibiza, Malaga, Palma, and Tenerife South.
Before, passengers might have been able to buy booze in the duty free and then chug it on the plane, but those days now appear to be over.
At first, the initial information was that passengers would have their hand luggage searched for offending items and if found, they would be obliged to place them in the cargo hold.
And if the luggage is not appropriate for the hold (eg a plastic bag)? The bottles of booze must be chucked in the bin.
However, it was clarified that, contrary to the first email, passengers are still permitted to carry duty-free alcohol on board but are strictly prohibited from drinking it during the flight.
“Any alcohol purchased in airport shops or elsewhere must be securely packed in an appropriate piece of cabin baggage, which will be tagged at the gate and then placed in the aircraft hold free of charge if you have purchased priority boarding or have a small piece of hand luggage,” the airline wrote.
“If the bag is unsuitable for the hold, customers will be required to dispose of the alcohol in the designated bins.
“Boarding gates will be closely monitored, and customers displaying any signs of anti-social behaviour or attempting to conceal alcohol will be denied travel without refund or compensation.”
The tough new measures come in the wake of a number of incidents onboard Ryanair flights involving drunken Brits.
Thirty-five-year-old Meredith Gibbons was jailed in January this year after getting drunk on a flight from Alicante to Newcastle.
He had smuggled his own alcohol onto the three-hour flight and secretly drank it in the toilet.
Gibbons reportedly threatened to ‘launch’ police officers down the stairs as he was being escorted off the aircraft.
In 2017, figures from 18 out of 20 police forces with major UK airports on their patches revealed arrests for drunken behaviour on flights or at airports had surged by over 50% in one year.
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