This came after Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary called for alcohol in bars before morning flights to be banned in a bid to help tackle bad passenger behaviour.
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According to The Times, he said the problem was becoming worse and his airline was having to divert at least one aircraft a day due to bad passenger behaviour.
UK airside pubs and restaurants do not require a premises licence under the Licensing Act 2003 but O’Leary said the rules should be in line with usual licensing hours.
JDW said the proposal would be difficult to manage, outlining how airport hospitality venues were highly supervised environments, covered by CCTV and run by experienced managers.
Site sales
The business analysed its airport sales over the past six months and found 65% of sales in airport pubs were from food, soft drinks, tea and coffee.
Furthermore, tea and coffee accounted for 17% of overall drink sales and soft drinks account for a further quarter (23%).
Of the remaining 35% of sales, which were alcoholic drinks, a significant proportion accompanied a meal, according to JDW.
Moreover, the company said it believed the problem is worse on some incoming flights.
JDW 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.”
No issues reported
JDW has operated at Heathrow airport since 1992, Gatwick since 1994 and Stansted since 2003.
The company said it had never been suggested that its customers had caused issues on flights.
The business opened its first pub in Spain this year, located at Alicante Airport and revealed plans to open two more in the country.
Both located at Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat airport, with the first of the two airside sites opening at Terminal 1 in September this year, followed by the second in Terminal 2 in January 2027.
