There is but one saving grace from the tyranny of airport-navigation hell:
The cocktail waiting for you at the end of it.
But now our fun-hating, red-coated friends across the pond want to take that privilege away.
After a slew of embarrassing episodes involving drunk British flyers (read: a woman getting a lifetime ban from British Airways; a rowdy bachelor party leading to an arrest in Germany), Britain’s new aviation minister, Tariq Ahmad, is looking to crack down on airport drinking.
Don’t expect any extreme, Prohibition-style action to be taken just yet, although a code of practices has been published that advises a zero-tolerance approach. The guidelines state that airport shops should advise passengers not to drink alcohol until they are on their flight, and that bars and restaurants have to limit or stop serving alcohol in the coming months.
Some U.K. airports have already tried their own approaches to reducing alcohol-fueled mishaps: the Manchester and Glasgow airports, e.g., have started selling alcohol in sealed bags in hopes of deterring people from opening bottles until the flight.
“It’s important that passengers who board planes are also responsible,” Ahmad advised in the new codebook. “If you are a young family traveling on a plane you want to go from point A to B, you don’t want to be disrupted.”
What Ahmad fails to note, though, is the toll his plan takes on would-be-sober travelers who have to put up with young families.
Sounds like Britain might need another vote.
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