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UK Aviation Minister to examine airport alcohol sales
Britain’s new Aviation Minister is to examine the way alcohol is sold at airports to curb the number of drink-related incidents on flights.
Lord Ahmad said he would look at the times alcohol is on sale and the screening of passengers.
Airlines, led by Jet2.com, have been calling on the government to take action after reporting a ‘shocking’ rise in passengers behaving badly on flights, with most incidents alcohol-related.
Jet2 has already imposed lifetime bans on passengers who disrupt flights and has urged other airlines to take a tougher stance, calling for a national database of disruptive passengers to be shared industry-wide.
It has also joined forces with World Duty Free to trial tamper-proof bags for duty free alcohol at Manchester and Glasgow airports.
Last month, Thomas Cook banned a passenger from flying back to the UK after he and fellow ‘stags’ caused ‘extremely disruptive’ behaviour on a 10-hour flight to Las Vegas.
The other stags had to sign contracts agreeing to good behaviour on the return journey.
Lord Ahmad said he did not want to ‘kill merriment’ but that passengers who board planes need to be responsible and have a responsibility to other passengers.
Data obtained by the Press Association through Freedom of Information requests showed that between March 2014 and March this year, 442 people were held on suspicion of being drunk on a plane or at a UK airport.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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