Wetherspoons and Ryanair at struggle over claims airport pubs are responsible for rowdy passengers
EXCLUSIVE: JD Wetherspoon bosses have said they would be more than happy to speak directly to Ryanair chiefs ‘should they want to’ after the airline accused it of trying to ‘stuff passengers full of alcohol’
JD Wetherspoon bosses have hit back at Ryanair after the airline accused them of getting its passengers drunk.
The bargain pub chain said that in 34 years of airport operations it had “never been suggested” its booze had been at the heart of problems on planes, despite Ryanair head Michael O’Leary claiming that disruptive passengers’ behaviour was sparked by pubs trying to “stuff passengers full of alcohol”.
Mr O’Leary had suggested a two-drink limit, something the pub chain has been quick to shut down. Spoons added that it had crack staff manning the bars at airports and would be more than happy to speak directly with O’Leary “should he want to”.
Wetherspoon spokesperson Eddie Gershon told the Daily Star: “We have discussed Michael O’Leary’s suggestions of applying a two-drink limit on passengers using airport cafes, restaurants and bars with our experienced airport teams and do not believe it is the right answer to reducing antisocial behaviour on flights.
“Airport hospitality venues are highly supervised environments, covered by CCTV and managed by experienced licensees. Licensees are themselves responsible to the licensing authorities and the police.”
Mr Gershon’s statement comes after Mr O’Leary claimed that “people like Tim” [Martin, the head of JD Wetherspoon], wanted to “stuff passengers full of alcohol.”
He moaned that Mr Martin “doesn’t have to deal with the consequences of it. The airlines do, and we’ve had enough and frankly, we’re now suing passengers to cover the cost of disrupted flights. It’s the only way we can take forward this issue”.
But Wetherspoons sees a different picture. It claims instead that the vast majority of its sales either come as an accompaniment ot food, or aren’t even alcoholic drinks at all.
Having analysed its airport sales over the last six months, the pub chain claimed: “64% of airport sales in our airport pubs are from food, soft drinks and tea and coffee. 14% of our overall drink sales are tea and coffee and 22% is from soft drinks.
“Of the remaining 36% of sales which are alcoholic drinks, a significant proportion are purchased with food.
“Our managers work closely with the airport authorities to identify customers arriving at the airport who may have had too much to drink, so that the necessary action can be taken to prevent them boarding flights.
“We have operated at Heathrow airport since 1992 and at Gatwick since 1994, and it has never been suggested to us that our customers have caused issues on flights.
“We are helped by the fact that our airport pubs are operated by some of our most experienced managers who have been in their roles for many years, alongside similarly long serving teams.”
Mr O’Leary has called for airports to introduce a two-drink limit for passengers at airports following a spate of incidents on flights, however Wetherspoons fears this will instead see excitable holiday makers simply look elsewhere for their bevs.
Mr Gershon continued: “Having discussed the suggestion for a two–drink limit in airport venues with the managers of our airport pubs, they believe it will tend to result in unsupervised consumption from ‘off-trade’ sales (from off-licences or supermarkets, for example) in public areas, possibly even before arriving at airports.
“Our managers report that the problem is worse on some incoming flights from popular holiday destinations, where the airport controls are perhaps less, a view shared by Mr O’Leary. We would be happy to directly discuss the issue with Mr O’Leary should he want to.”
The Daily Star has approached Ryanair for comment.
