Flights attendants at both Norwegian Air and Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) are asking state airports agency Avinor to crack down both on their bars and tax-free sales of alcoholic beverages. They’re tired of having to deal with drunken passengers on board flights, and claim it threatens airline safety.
Flight attendant unions want to forbid sales of small bottles of booze. They also want tax-free shops to seal bags and they want airport bars and restaurants to be much more careful about pouring drinks.
“We see that passengers steadily are drinking more and become unruly on board flights,” said René-Charles Gustavsen of Norwegian Air’s flight attendants’ union to Parat Luftfart. They’re not calling for any ban on tax-free sales, just better control.
Gustavsen won support from his counterpart at SAS’ flight attendants’ union, Martinus Røkkum. Both cite a rising problem with passengers who drink their tax-free liquor on board flights. That’s confirmed in the numbers of unruly airborne incidents that have been reported to police, from 161 cases in 2017 to 254 last year.
newsinenglish.no staff
