Drunk air passenger arrests up 50% in UK

Arrests of passengers suspected of being drunk at UK airports and on flights have risen by 50 per cent in a year.

A total of 387 people were arrested between February 2016 and February 2017 - up from 255 the previous year, BBC research showed on Sunday.

The Home Office is "considering" calls for tougher rules on alcohol.

Trade body Airlines UK said it should be made illegal for people to drink their own alcohol on board a plane.

Meanwhile, a total of 19,000 of the Unite union's (UK'S biggest trade union) cabin crew members were surveyed and 4,000 responded, with one in five saying they had suffered physical abuse.

A former cabin crew manager with Virgin, Ally Murphy, quit her job in October last year after 14 years. She told the BBC: "People just see us as barmaids in the sky."

In July 2016, the aviation industry introduced a voluntary code of conduct on disruptive passengers, which most of the big airlines and airports signed up to.

The code's advice included asking retailers to warn passengers not to consume duty-free purchases on the plane while staff are also asked not to sell alcohol to passengers who appear drunk.

World Duty Free said it was committed to dealing with the issue and that it displays "clear advisory notices at till points, on till receipts and on carrier bags that remind customers that alcohol purchases cannot be opened until their final destination is reached".

Airlines UK, which represents carriers such as Virgin, British Airways and EasyJet, wants the government to amend the law to make consumption of a passenger's own alcohol on board an aircraft a criminal offence.

--IANS

ksk/mr