Response to Press Comment

6th May 2026

Wetherspoon Comments on Michael O'Leary's Proposed Two Drink Limit at Airports.

Wetherspoon does not agree with Michael O'Leary's suggestion, reported in the Times and elsewhere, of a two-drink limit for passengers using airport cafes, restaurants and bars.

This proposal would be very difficult to manage and would be regarded as an unnecessarily "big brother" approach by many people.Airport hospitality venues are highly supervised environments, covered by CCTV and run by experienced managers.Airport venues are responsible to the airport authorities and to the police for compliance with the laws regulating the sale of alcohol. Wetherspoon applies the same strict policies and procedures to prevent excessive consumption of alcohol in its airport sites as in all our pubs.

Wetherspoon also patriciates in the "One too Many" campaign, which is used by airport hospitality venues to discourage passengers from anti-social behaviour on flights.Wetherspoon has analysed its airport sales for the last six months.65% of sales in airport pubs are from food, soft drinks, tea and coffee. Tea and coffee account for 17% of overall drink sales and soft drinks account for a further 23%.Of the remaining 35% of sales which are alcoholic drinks, a significant proportion accompany a meal.

 Wetherspoon managers work closely with the airport authorities to identify customers arriving at the airport who may have had too much to drink, so that the necessary action can be taken to prevent them boarding flights.Wetherspoon has operated at Heathrow airport since 1992, Gatwick since 1994 and at Stansted since 2003 and it has never been suggested to us that our customers have caused issues on flights. Wetherspoon airport pubs are operated by some of our most experienced managers who have been in their roles for many years, alongside similarly long-serving teams. The general view among airport managers is that a two-drink limit would encourage unsupervised consumption from "off-trade" sales (from off-licenses or supermarkets, for example) in public areas, even before arriving at airports. The company believes that the problem is worse on some incoming flights from certain destinations, where the airport controls are perhaps less- a view shared by Mr O'Leary. Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin said:

"It is in everyone's interests to have good behaviour at airports and on flights. A two-drink limit would be extraordinarily difficult to implement, short of breathalysing passengers, and would, in our opinion, be an overreaction- especially since many of the problems stem from incoming flights."

ENDS

Enquiries:

Nigel Connor Legal Director 07818 232529

Eddie Gershon Company Spokesman 07956 392234

Please send any questions by email to [email protected]