hi all,
The rule here is that no one should be drunk on board. That is the law.
Now the reality is different and one particular destination is problematic : Ibiza (night flying)
All airlines encounter problems. They all talk and exchange experiences to see if there are some trends and to try to find a solution to the never ending problems.
Airport are of no help as selling miniatures and small bottles of wines a knock down prices.
Bars in airport are too happy to make good money so they sale alcohol without restriction.
Airlines have talked to the police and they should be patrolling when Ibiza flights are scheduled. I did 2 of these flights recently from Birmingham and there was no police to be seen.
The CAA does not seem to do anything about it.
The problem for the crews is unless someone is totally drunk and can/is refused carriage, we have no means of accurately checking if someone has drunk too much.
In doubt we restrict the sales to certain individuals to just soft drinks. For the others it is more complicated as even if you restrict the sales to let's say 2 miniatures per person, most of them got some alcohol in the duty free shop they pour once our backs are turned.
That is the reason why some flights starting well, can end up being total mayhem due to the fact lots of pax have drunk their own alcohol.
There is a simple, easy solution. No alcohol for these flights ( a bit like football flights which have become so easy to operate), and a refusal in the terminal to serve alcohol. The weapon is the boarding pass. It is easy to check where people are going to.
But no one is taking that decision as making money is more important than the rest.
My airline allows us to stop/ not do services.
But until the CAA takes the reins of the problem and demand that the law is respected, we will carry on having this problem.