Boss of Ryanair, Michael O’Leary, calls for a limit on how many drinks passengers can consume at airports to curb rowdy and disruptive behaviour on board aircraft. Tony McDonough reports

Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary is calling for action to curb what he claims is a rise in rowdy and disruptive behaviour on board aircraft.

Mr O’Leary believes passengers should be restricted to just two alcoholic drinks at airports while waiting for their flights. He insists he’s not a killjoy but adds his staff are increasingly being put at risk by abuse and even violence.

He told the Daily Telegraph: “We don’t want to begrudge people having a drink. But we don’t allow people to drink-drive, yet we keep putting them up in aircraft at 33,000ft.”

Delays at airports adds to the problem, Mr O’Leary explained, with passengers spending that extra time in bars. Ryanair operates more than 30 routes out of Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

“In the old days, people who drank too much would eventually fall over or fall asleep. But now those passengers are also on tablets and powder,” he said. “It’s the mix. You get much more aggressive behaviour that becomes very difficult to manage.”

Mr O’Leary also said that it was often a tricky task for staff at the boarding gate to identify troublesome drunks. He added: “As long as they can stand up and shuffle they will get through. Then when the plane takes off, we see the misbehaviour.”

READ MORE: Liverpool city region tourism worth £6.25bn a year

In April Ryanair added three new routes to its summer 2024 schedule out of Liverpool taking the total to 32 in an investment worth £80m. The three routes are to Corfu, Lanzarote and Paphos.

To support this 11% Liverpool traffic growth, Ryanair has based one new B737 aircraft for the summer bringing its total Liverpool fleet to five aircraft and creating more than 30 pilot and cabin crew jobs.