A crackdown on the sale of alcohol at British airports is being considered by the new aviation minister amid a spate of incidents involving drunk passengers.

Aviation minister Tariq Ahmad said: “It’s important that passengers who board planes are also responsible and have a responsibility to other passengers, and that certainly should be the factor which we bear in mind. If you are a young family travelling on a plane you want to go from point A to B – you don’t want to be disrupted.”

The minister also planned to review the measures that prevent drunk passengers from boarding flights and floated the idea of screening travellers. “I think that it’s important for the safety and security of all passengers that we ensure that regime is actually fit for purpose,” Lord Ahmad said.

His aim was to ensure that planes are “an environment in which you’re going to be safe and secure” for all passengers. Bars and restaurants in airports are not subject to normal licensing restrictions and can therefore sell alcohol at any time of the day or night.

Reviewing the way that bars, restaurants and duty free stores sell alcohol in airports will be examined by Ahmad, who was appointed by Theresa May earlier this month.

Glasgow and Manchester airports have tested a scheme to sell alcohol in sealed bags in a bid to stop passengers consuming it before boarding and causing problems in the air.

Several airlines have raised concerns with the government about the number of alcohol-related incidents on flights.



At least 442 people were arrested in the two years to March 2016 on suspicion of being intoxicated on a plane or at an airport, according to figures obtained under freedom of information requests.

In late February six men on a stag party were arrested by German police after a mid-air brawl prompted the pilot of the Luton to Bratislava flight to make an unscheduled landing in Berlin.

In May an easyJet flight from Manchester to Paphos was delayed for almost two hours after a 25-year-old woman was asked to leave the aircraft following a disturbance. While being escorted off the flight by cabin crew she allegedly assaulted the captain and was arrested.

This week a code of practice on disruptive passengers was published following talks between bodies including the British Air Transport Association (Bata) and the Airport Operators Association (AOA), as well as airlines and police.

The zero tolerance approach includes airport shops advising passengers not to drink alcohol they have purchased before or during their flight, and training staff in bars and restaurants to limit or stop serving alcohol to prevent or manage disruptive behaviour.

Tim Alderslade, Bata chief executive, and Ed Anderson, AOA chair, said: “We need the message to go out that all passengers are responsible for their own behaviour and that causing disruption on board an aircraft is an illegal offence which can carry a heavy penalty, such as a travel ban, fine, or even a prison sentence. Now is the time to tackle this problem collectively.”

Aviation consultant Andy Cooper told Travel Weekly last year that it remained relatively unusual for airlines to prosecute disruptive passengers. “Airports and airlines need to consider their alcohol sales policies carefully,” he wrote. “If I went to a pub on a Saturday night and was clearly drunk, the staff should not serve me alcohol, at the risk of losing their licence. Airport bars should adopt a similarly strict, or even stricter, approach in the knowledge that all their customers will be boarding a flight when they have finished.”

Budget carrier Jet2.com is conducting a campaign to tackle problems caused by drunk passengers. Phil Ward, its managing director, said disruptive behaviour on flights and at airports was often driven by excessive consumption of alcohol and was unacceptable.