First he came for the free in-flight snacks, then he came for the cabin bags. Now Michael O’Leary has set his sights on pre-flight pints in the airport. In yet another headline-grabbing outburst, the Ryanair chief executive has called for the sale of alcohol in airport bars in the early morning to be banned.

O’Leary claims that Ryanair diverts one flight a day on average because of bad behaviour on board by passengers. This compares with one a week a decade ago. On this occasion, at least, his colourful rhetoric is backed up by official figures.

The Irish Aviation Authority annual safety performance review released last August noted 1,432 “events” during 2024 involving a difficult or unruly passenger, compared to 426 in 2023. The International Air Transport Association reports that there was one incident for every 480 flights in 2023 versus one incident for every 568 flights in 2022. The problem is getting worse.

This cannot all be blamed on early morning airport drinkers or even on alcohol. Even if that was the case, O’Leary’s remedy is unlikely to be effective. Like other airlines, Ryanair serves alcohol on its flights, although it operates an unofficial two-drink limit, according to its chief executive. That will be news to some. There is also no shortage of alcohol available in airport shops.

[ Pre-flight drinking at Dublin Airport: Reader was ‘vomited on’ by a ‘drunk passenger’Opens in new window ]

A more effective deterrent is to hold disruptive passengers responsible for their actions. Ryanair and other airlines have sought, with some success, to make such passengers liable for the costs of diverting an aircraft.

This week it emerged the airline got a judgment of more than €15,000 against a passenger who caused a flight from Dublin to Lanzarote to divert to Porto in 2024. Also this week Ryanair announced that a court in Toulouse convicted two passengers who disrupted its flight from Stansted to Ibiza last May. They had to pay €10,000 and received suspended 10-month sentences.

Bringing more prosecutions of this nature would be a more effective route to addressing the problem than calling for a ban on early morning airport drinking.