Aeroflot Airlines Ilyushin Il-96-300 (RA-96008)

Sometimes when you see the results of a study you just want to say, “duh!” Recently Aeroflot, Russia’s flag carrier, banned alcohol on some of its longer flights to see if it would decrease in flight disturbances. Not to surprisingly, they did see a decrease.

The ban was only for passengers in  economy seats (maybe people with more money can hold their booze better?). Since the change, Aeroflot has seen a “significant fall” in the number of alcohol-related issues (this is the “duh” part).

Due to the success, the airline is continuing to ban alcohol on flights from Moscow to Havana, Bangkok, Shanghai and the Russian cities of Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky at least through the summer.

I am sort of torn with the banning of alcohol on flights. When you read about passengers going crazy on flights, 95% of the time alcohol (and/or drugs) are involved. However, flying is very stressful to a lot of people and alcohol can give passengers a certain level of comfort. Alcohol is also a big money maker for airlines. Those $5-8 you are spending on mixed drinks costs the airlines much less and losing that extra revenue would cause airlines to increase prices.

Many flight attendants I have talked to would love to see alcohol banned on flights. You can imagine, sometimes it makes grumpy passengers even more grumpy. Plus having the “I think you might have had enough, ”  conversation can’t be easy.

Honestly, I don’t mind having a little buzz while travelling at 30,000 feet. I don’t fear flying, I don’t get angry, but I might get annoying when I keep talking about how awesome it is we are all flying.

Do you think banning or reducing alcohol consumption on airlines, knowing prices would go up, is a good move?