UK. The number of passengers arrested on suspicion of being drunk at UK airports and on flights has risen by +50% in a year, according to a BBC investigation.
The broadcaster’s Panorama show found that there were 387 arrests between February 2016 and February 2017 compared to 255 in the previous year. The arrest figures were obtained from 18 out of the 20 police forces with a major airport in their area.
A BBC report on the programme, which airs tonight (14 August) on BBC One at 8.30pm BST, said trade association Airlines UK had called for the government to amend the law to make consumption of a passenger’s own alcohol on board an aircraft a criminal offence.
Panorama also cited a survey which showed that more than half of cabin crew had witnessed disruptive drunken passenger behaviour at UK airports. Some 4,000 cabin crew from the Unite union responded to the survey (of 19,000 asked), with one in five saying they had suffered physical abuse.
Airport executives and food & beverage operators rejected media claims last summer that they were acting irresponsibly in not controlling alcohol consumption levels of passengers who later cause disruption on planes.
A number of airlines and airports signed up to a voluntary code of practice on disruptive passengers, which was developed by members of the British Air Transport Association, the Airport Operators Association, the Airport Police Commanders Group, the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers, and the UK Travel Retail Forum.
Panorama found that more than a quarter of cabin crew who responded to the survey were unaware of the code of practice and, of those who had heard of it, only 23% thought it was working.
The BBC report added that the UK’s Home Office was considering implementing tougher regulations on the sale of alcohol at airports, based on a House of Lords committee report earlier this year.
The committee said it had not found “one shred of evidence to show the voluntary code was either working now or had any possible vestige of success in working any time soon”.
Measures the Home Office could take include revoking airports’ exemption from licensing laws which prevent the sale of alcohol outside permitted hours, according to the BBC.
