Drunken Air Passengers All The Rage In The UK

The United Kingdom has become enraged about the increasing number of travelers getting drunk in airports and becoming disorderly inflight…And they are blaming duty free shops for instigating this plague of bad behavior.

According to a BBC Panorama investigation, the number of people being arrested for being drunk and disorderly is growing and has shown a more than 50% increase over last year.

And even more troubling, the country’s Civil Aviation Authority is reporting an almost 600% increase in “disruptive” incidents on flights in the UK between 2012 and 2016, and they’re blaming alcohol as being a factor in the majority of those incidents.

Crew members are claiming all kinds of inflight debauchery, attendant’s being groped, passengers not making their way back to the bathrooms in time.

So what’s going on here besides the obvious?

The BBC expose is reporting that Duty Free shops are responsible for this troubling upswing in drunken behavior by openly suggesting that their purchases can be legally consumed on flights. And some advocates are calling for tighter controls on purchasing alcohol in airports.

Airlines UK, a trade organization which represents carriers such as Virgin, British Airways and EasyJet, told the BBC that they want the government to amend the existing  law and make it a criminal offence for passengers to consume their own alcohol on board.

Similarly, Ryanair who actually banned duty-free alcohol on their flights to Ibiza in 2015, is calling for tighter restrictions around purchasing alcohol at airports.

Again, the majority of this current outrage is centered on the duty free shops, for pushing ‘alcoh0l-to-go’ like drug dealers in a schoolyard.

Airline passengers evidently bare no responsibility… they’re innocents coerced into drinking themselves senseless by greedy merchants bent on profits.

Sure, regulate these duty free shops all you want. After all the UK Travel Retail Forum is reporting that travelers spent £300 million on alcohol in UK airports last year.

But we think the flying public would be better served to heed the words of fellow countryman (and International Man of Mystery) Austin Powers …“OH BEHAVE.”