THE issue of drinking on planes has reared its head again, with Ryanair's Michael O'Leary calling for a limit on the amount of booze served to passengers. As flight attendants, we're broadly in favour of any measures that would reduce drinking in our cabins. But there's kind of already a limit in place that passengers just don't know about, that we're able to enforce when we need to.
In this week's blog for Sun Travel , I'll explain exactly what those limits are - and how bringing in a strict rule to restrict passengers' drinking on board could also have its own problems. Firstly, I would absolutely agree that passengers shouldn't be able to drink as much as they're currently allowed to do. Let's face it, drunk people crammed into a tube 30,000 feet in the air with hundreds of strangers and nowhere to go is a recipe for disaster.
Read More on Flight Attendants The summer months are particularly bad and a lot more hectic for us cabin crew members, with a big increase in the number of intoxicated passengers that we have to deal with. It's just an extra element that distracts us from our duties of both keeping people safe and making sure everything in the cabin is okay. That's why, as a team, we keep an eye on the consumption of each passenger , and will let each other know if someone is drinking a little too greedily.
Then we can all collectively make a decision of whether or not we need to cut their supply and refuse them service. Most read in News Travel The limit for us is, if we judge them to be in a position where they wouldn't be able to look after themselves in an emergency if they had more to drink . The telltale signs are obvious - slurring speech, stumbling down the aisle on the way to the toilets for the eighth time in an hour and glazed expressions to name just a few.
However, the most obvious sign is the passenger getting louder and louder - that internal volume control seems to just break after a certain point and people cannot limit how loudly they're speaking. So when we notice those signs, that's when we'd have a discussion in the galley about whether or not they've reached the threshold for having their service cut off . Whenever this happens they always complain, but it's for their own good.
The rules around bringing your own alcohol on board planes varies depending on airlines. Generally speaking, though, you shouldn't be drinking your own booze on board the plane. We know they sell it at duty free, but those bottles are for you to take home for a reduced rate, rather than in-flight party supplies.
Typically, if you're flying long-haul, you shouldn't need to drink your own alcohol anyway, as drinks are generally included in the price of your ticket. So, as long as you're sensible and don't go wild, you'll have a steady stream of drinks coming your way throughout. Meanwhile, on budget or short-haul trips, there's the option to pay for drinks from the cabin crew, if you want one.
Sure, they're more expensive, but they're also the drinks you're permitted to have. Any opened bottles, if caught, are likely to be confiscated and, depending on the carrier, you could end up being dealt any number of punishments. Some airlines are very strict about this, as it could easily become a safety issue, so you could find yourself on their no-fly list if you're found to be flouting the rules.
So it's best to not bother bringing your own drinks with you, and instead just sitting back and enjoying your flight, with the alcohol on board, served with a smile by the members of your in-flight cabin crew. We can't carry everyone off the plane if there's an incident and we need people to be sober enough that they can follow instructions. If you're passed out in your seat, you're not only putting yourself at risk, but you could also be blocking others in the plane as well, making yourself a dangerous human obstacle.
We're not killjoys, we understand that people want to have a good time on their holidays , but at the same time, our main job is to make sure everyone is safe - and drunk people can be a huge risk. The drinks limit idea is a good one, but it's certainly not the silver bullet some people are suggesting it would be, as it could also cause other problems for us. For instance, there are currently thousands of videos of people showing " hacks " for getting around hand luggage rules on social media.
Within a week of any limits being introduced, there'd be just as many people showing how to sneak booze on board, and it would be a completely new problem for us to have to worry about. So there needs to be careful planning and thought put into any rules, if they are to be introduced. However, as someone who has previously been told, "I'm not that drunk" by someone just moments after they've been sick into their own sunhat, I'm definitely in favour of tighter regulations.
READ MORE SUN STORIES Meanwhile, these are the food and drink choices you should never have on a plane. And this is the worst row to sit in on every single plane, according to flight attendants..
