Cheers: The Return of Booze to Airplanes

by Robert McGarvey

The friendly skies are getting friendlier – at least they are getting cheerier because, as of mid February, more carriers will be serving beer, wine, and cocktails in coach. Southwest, for instance, says it will be pouring as of February 16. For now American Airlines is a holdout (it does pour for front cabin pax) but as it hears the cash registers merrily ringing at competitors it certainly will start pouring too.

Understand this: I cannot recall the last time I had an alcoholic beverage on a domestic flight – possibly never in this century. I am a Diet Coke or coffee guy at 30,000 feet. Yes. on international flights I usually will sip some bad wine with a meal but that really is only because I am bored and know I have lots more hours of not much in front of me.

Yet I am supportive of this carrier move to sell booze. For many people, a drink or two in the air has a calming effect. It certainly isn’t enough to get a person drunk.

That said, I know many flight attendants are in a frenzy about this resumption of alcohol service in the air. Lyn Montgomery, president of Transport Workers Union Local 556, the union of Southwest flight attendants, called the airline’s decision to resume alcohol sales “both unsafe and irresponsible” in a statement emailed to the Washington Post.

“We have adamantly and unequivocally informed management that resuming sales of alcohol while the mask mandate is in place has the great potential to increase customer noncompliance and misconduct issues,” Montgomery added.

I don’t dismiss her concerns – or similar concerns on the parts of tens of thousands of flight attendants who have faced a spike in astonishingly bad and violent behavior on the part of many passengers in the pandemic era.

I also know the FAA has reported that it has logged hundreds of cases of disruptive passengers who were fueled by too much alcohol.

But I just do not believe passengers on planes, certainly not in coach, will ever be served enough booze inflight to get blotto. There just is not that much service. And flight attendants are not allowed to serve an intoxicated passenger anyway.

So how did that passenger get drunk? In some cases passengers are and have been sneaking their own booze aboard. You can’t do that – it violates multiple rules. But, anecdotally, I hear of many, many cases of passengers smuggling booze aboard and getting away with it. I also rather doubt too many flight attendants will challenge a passenger: Is that smuggled vodka you are swilling? No, I just don’t hear that.

Even so, I don’t see smuggled booze as the problem. TSA limits on liquids mean quantities smuggled aboard can’t amount to much.

And I think a way to stifle the smuggling that does occur is to slap the most flagrant violators with the $11,000 fine that can be levied. That will grab headlines and it is a frightening thought – smuggle a miniature nip aboard and pay $11,000 for it.

That still leaves the biggest issue in passenger drunkenness unresolved and that’s the passengers who stumble aboard drunk.

How did they get in this blotto condition? Often it’s by downing a half dozen martinis at an airport bar.

There’s an easy fix for that: Every state has laws that impose penalties on licensed establishments that serve an intoxicated customer. Penalties range from fines to arrests for misdemeanors to suspension of the liquor license. In many states a licensed establishment can also be held legally liable for damages caused by a drunk patron after leaving the establishment. Just remind airport bars and restaurants of their legal exposure – and inflict fines and a few arrests – and they will straighten up. The FAA needs to speak up, as do local airport authorities. That is a big, brutal stick. Wave it and hit a few who ignore the threats.

The last step is reminding carrier gate staff that they can and should deny boarding to inebriated passengers. In the US, carriers do have the right to deny boarding to a drunk – and very occasionally they exercise that right. They need to do that more and, yes, local police typically are available to assist in convincing a drunk it’s time to go home and climb into bed, not to climb on a plane.

Meantime, Delta Air CEO Ed Bastian has written to the US Attorney General asking that the government initiate a federal do not fly list that would be shared among carriers. That is a wonderful idea. Even the fear of it may be enough to coax some pax into being more civil in the sky.

Bottomline: There are ways to reduce onboard violent drunkenness but will let passengers have a Bloody Mary on board. And they are not that hard to implement.