Wednesday, April 28, 2021

drinking on airlines... since 1949, has caused a lot of problems, but earned the airlines a lot of money

Before 1949, U.S. airlines didn’t serve alcohol in flight, but when a few airlines eventually decided to serve alcohol, that didn’t mean it was easy to do so. 

Because of conflicting state liquor laws, drinks could be served only over certain states.

Intoxicated passengers soon became a problem on some flights. By the mid-1950s the FAA imposed a two-drink limit.

Congress stepped in, looking to ban the serving of liquor on all domestic flights.

Six U.S. airlines agreed to limit hard liquor, but declared they wouldn’t restrict beer and wine service. 

Banning alcohol on flights won’t happen anytime soon. According to figures collected from five U.S. airlines over a four-month period in 2014, alcohol sales brought in more than $43 million. 

And just a few weeks ago, KXAN reported that “passengers on a Southwest Airlines flight from Oakland, California, to Kansas City, Missouri, managed to drink all the plane’s alcohol, prompting the pilot to go on the overhead speaker and congratulate the fliers.”


Me, I figure drinking makes drunks, and no one like anyone else drunk before they are. So, since there's no way to get a drunk to shut up, sleep, or be nice, I figure the only way to get them to quit being a problem on an airline is to spike their drink so they get something that makes them sleep, or puke. People generally are a lot less problematical when they feel they have to puke. It doesn't make them much quieter, but they are much less energetic, normally. 

But there sure are a lot of people that feel a lot happier after 2 beers. If airlines could make every other flight alcoholic, and the rest without alcohol, I wonder if that would prevent some problems? 

1 comment:

  1. You say, “So, since there's no way to get a drunk to shut up, sleep, or be nice…” That simple truth is worthy of a place in a doctorate dissertation! I tend to think the funniest thing I’ve seen in all my years, on numerous occasions, is some sober bloke trying to reason with a drunk. It’s easier change the values of the strong and weak nuclear forces than it is to have a rational conversation with a drunk. That’s not meant to be judgmental, it’s simply a fact. (Which is not to say ‘judging’ is in itself bad. We all to it every day, out of necessity.) There’s not too many things in this life I enjoy more than a pint of Guinness, a wee bit of Drambuie on the side, a pipe full of a good blended tobacco, perhaps the latest edition of “Car Guy,’ and some good piano jazz until two or so into the morning. Life is good! And speaking of “good” Jesse, the two most recent lead photographs are both bell ringers. Photographically the Granatelli Novi was perfect. The image of today was probably snapped after 1937 given the fact there’s no seat for a riding mechanic. Can only wonder what it is that has the crews attention.

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