Morning drinking is bad, oh unless you are in an airport!
Drinking first thing in the morning is one of the classic signs that you have lost control of alcohol. However, there is a strange unwritten rule that says you are excluded from this judgment if you are in an airport.
The whole western world is living in a bubble of unreality. Our relationship with this drug that kills over 3,000,000 every year is a mix of insanity and sleight of hand.
In airports around the world, people are using their location as a justification to use an addictive and dangerous drug.
What does location have to do with it?
It was five AM on a Friday morning, and the majority of the folks at a Costa Coffee at the center of a shopping concourse at Luton Airport, north of Greater London, appeared somewhat gloomy, as though they would prefer to be elsewhere.
A guy in a blue hoodie was seated with his jaw propped up on his palm, looking for his flight on a departure board. A younger couple beside him examined their smartphones, paying no attention to one another. But perhaps this is how people should appear at such a crazy early hour.
A couple of feet away, however, at the Smithfield Bar, which was fashioned to appear like an old timber lodge, the ambiance was much more joyful (although a lot more noisy and annoying too).
A married couple was sipping berry-flavored cider to commemorate the beginning of a naughty weekend away in Paris. A lady was buying vodka and tonics and pints of beer for her pals while swaying to the jukebox. A couple of guys going to Benidorm, Spain, for a boys trip were giggling while downing beer.
Airport drinking has become a crazy custom
For countless people, morning drinking is a custom at Britain’s international airports, however, it could soon end up being a distant memory. On Thursday, the English authorities revealed that it will examine flight terminal licensing policies in England and Wales after criticisms from budget airline companies like EasyJet and Jet2 about intoxicated and rowdy travelers.
At London Stansted Airport this summer season, for instance, a groom done up as Tinker Bell was accused of terrorizing other travelers on a flight to Krakow, Poland, obstructing the airplane. He needed to be dragged off the plane.
These kinds of shenanigans are a threat, causing anxiety, physical brawls and, the airline companies stated, resulting in journeys to be delayed or redirected.
Ryanair claimed in an announcement last year, “It’s totally unjust that airports may make money from the limitless sale of booze to travelers and leave the airline companies to take care of the repercussions.”
Hypocritical airlines
Many believe that low-quality airlines like Ryanair, who have a terrible reputation for treating their customers as nothing more than cash cows, are not really interested in public health.
Beyond flight terminals, most UK regional jurisdictions restrict the variety of locations that can offer alcohol around the clock, and the typical closing time for pubs and clubs is in between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m.
However, pubs and bars at intercontinental flight terminals are excluded from Britain’s licensing guidelines; a traveler can typically get an alcoholic beverage at any time of the day or night.
The UK government is looking for the social opinion on whether the more stringent licensing policies ought to be applicable to airports, as well. The authorities have recommended prohibiting alcohol sales at flight terminal bars from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m.
What good that would do is unclear.
Booze-fueled flights
The state’s evaluation follows a 2017 suggestion from a board in the House of Lords, the higher chamber of the British Congress, to remove the licensing privilege due to a proliferation in a booze-fueled problem.
Jet2 (a low-cost airline) informed the board that it had dealt with nearly six hundred occurrences in summer season alone, over half of which entailed drinking. Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority has had greater than 400 statements of unruly travelers last year, up from less than 100 the year before.
The bulk of those involved intoxicated passengers, the authority claimed in a press release on Friday.
Big alcohol wants more morning drinking
Those opposed to any modification – the alcohol industry and bars at flight terminals, for instance, keep in mind that the amount of revealed rowdy passengers was small compared to the greater than 290 million travelers who used UK airports last year.
The discussion is similar to the one that happened when Britain excused flight terminals from licensing rules in the 1950s. Harold Watkins, the transportation secretary during the time, contended that the modification was necessary to draw in visitors.
“One might excuse them if they do not often comprehend why it is that they can not always get a drink,” he claimed in 1957.
“Practically every other worldwide air terminal provides a 24-hour bar service.”
Britain was trying to compete
But even at that time, others observed a substantial drawback. A tourist who has a meal and an alcoholic drink at the airport “goes onto an aircraft completely clear-headed and is so for possibly an hour or so afterward,” a famous legislator, stated in a discussion in the mid-fifties. “But later on, the tourist establishes all the signs and symptoms of drunkenness and ends up being a problem.”
Being intoxicated on a flight is against the law under British law, and jeopardizing the security of an airplane is punishable by as much as 5 years in prison.
At the Smithfield Bar, meanwhile, there was very little desire for altering the legislation to prohibit day drinking. “Surely drunks are a much bigger issue in the evening?” stated Ine Grinberga, who was going home to Romania after returning from vacation.
“Why prevent drinking only in the early morning?”
Ms. Grinberga was sharing a lager with a friend. They had made a decision to consume alcohol, she stated, after strolling past the bar and laughing at all the people drinking at 6 am. Next, they were drinking themselves.
Perhaps we should be banning the stupid?
Timmi Clark mirrored the opposition. She was sipping a rose-petal-covered vodka and tonic while donning a garland to kick-start her wedding celebrations in Dublin.
“It’s my hen night, so I’m partying in Dublin,” she stated. “But it’s like a big custom: You’re on vacation; you have a drink. Why spoil that?”
Another individual drinking alcohol, Sam Pughes, who was on his way to Greece for a 30th birthday celebration, was midway through a pint of beer. He claimed that stopping early morning alcohol consumption would not stop tourists from getting plastered on airplanes, because travelers can purchase alcohol on the flights anyway.
The authorities need to be dealing with another problem, Mr. Pughes stated. “I understand you could be banned from getting on an airplane for being intoxicated,” he mentioned, “but you can’t for being a moron. It could be better if they outlawed all the jerks and boneheads you get on flights.”
Brian Malloy, who was headed to Prague for his stag party, was resting on the bar’s sticky carpet, vomiting into a plastic sack. He had way too much to drink the evening before, stated his friend Sean.
Drinkers don’t want to be stopped SHOCK
The stag party also did not see the benefits of altering the legislation to suppress morning drinking and airport alcohol consumption as a whole.
“It’s stupid to ban alcohol,” Mr. Hammon stated. “You can only fit in a single drink before you get on an airplane and you can get lots of beer on the flight itself.”
He added, “They do not let you on plastered, in any case.”
Mr. Malloy himself had no opinion. But he did manage to stop vomiting for a moment when asked if he was OKAY
Turkeys voting for Thanksgiving
Of course, it should go without saying… Asking drunken people if morning drinking should be banned is a bit like asking turkey’s to vote for Thanksgiving.
The good news is, more and more people are deciding to give up the silly traditions like morning drinking at the airport. All in favor of a happy sober life.
The Stop Drinking Expert program shows people how to stop drinking alcohol quickly and easily.
For more information on attending a live one-day Bootcamp click here.
