Photo Courtesy of Susan Thomas
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Southwest Airlines announced this week they will soon allow passengers to imbibe when they want to get away. Starting Feb. 16, on flights of 176 miles or longer, passengers can get their vacation started with a Bloody Mary onboard once again.
The Dallas-based carrier stopped selling alcoholic beverages two years ago in the early days of the pandemic. In January 2021, President Joe Biden put into place a federal mask mandate for public transportation to reduce the spread of coronavirus. The mandate requires air travelers to wear masks inside airports and on airplanes. Many passenger disruptions are over the mask mandate; in 2021 there were 5,981 unruly passenger reports and 4,290 mask-related incidents reported.
Unruly passengers peaked when the mask mandate was put into place and while it has dropped it is still not at pre-covid levels, which is why flight attendant unions want to hold off on serving booze.
TWU Local 556 is a union that represents more than 15,000 flight attendants at Southwest Airlines. They condemned the decision on Friday saying it’s unsafe and irresponsible to resume alcohol sales. From a Facebook post, “We have adamantly and unequivocally informed management [of Southwest Airlines] that to do this prior to the mask mandate being lifted is contrary to their prior statements and will potentially increase customer non-compliance and misconduct issues.”
In December 2021, the U.S. Justice Department had to step in due to an uptick in unruly passengers. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland directed his staff to prioritize the prosecution of federal crimes committed on planes and at airports due to increasing attacks by passengers.
Just this week the chief executive of Delta Air Lines, Ed Bastian, asked in a letter to Garland for a no-fly list for unruly passengers.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, in 2019 there were just 146 investigations initiated by unruly passengers; in 2020 it climbed to 183. In 2021 the number jumped to more than 1,000, with 350 enforcement actions taken.
The Wall Street Journal just released their airline rankings for 2021. Southwest Airlines lost its title spot in 2020, falling to third. The ranking includes on-time arrivals, for which the Dallas-based carrier ranks seventh, canceled flights, extreme delays and – my personal nightmare scenario – two-hour tarmac delays for which Southwest was first, meaning it had the fewest. (JetBlue had the most, followed by American Airlines which was second worst of the nine major carriers.)
Here’s hoping you didn’t shred your drink coupons that expired in 2020 or 2021 because Southwest says they will honor those through the end of 2022. Southwest will serve beer, wine, vodka, whisky and tequila.
Remember, passengers can be denied boarding if they appear intoxicated at the gate. Also, while passengers can carry small, sealed containers of alcohol on board, they cannot open and drink alcohol on the plane. Only the airline can serve passengers.
American Airlines still does not offer alcoholic drinks in the main cabin but does allow it in first and business class. There’s no word yet on when they will open the bar to everyone.
