FEATURED INTERVIEW: FRANÇOIS BOURIENNE, UKTRF
it addressed the need for better education surrounding acceptable behaviour at the airport and on airlines. “These schemes are very good
at tackling the issues when they arise and that’s why the number of incidents is going down, but it does not help the fact that you need to educate some people that it is not acceptable to be disruptive,” according to Bourienne. “It’s a bit like if you make the
analogy of drinking and driving. The police are looking for bad behaviour at the airport like they would do on the roads for drink drivers, but at the end of the day, maybe it’s better to educate people that you should not drink in the first instance before driving. It’s not just about catching people in the act, it’s about telling them ‘don’t do it’.”
Ryanair: two-drink limit TRBusiness approached Bourienne for an interview following this publication’s report published in June, in which Ryanair said that it was calling for measures to curb drinking at airports. “We are also calling for significant
changes to prohibit the sale of alcohol at airports, such as a two-drink limit per passenger and no alcohol sales before 10am,” Ryanair said at the time. “It’s incumbent on the airports
to introduce these preventative measures to curb excessive drinking and the problems it creates, rather than allowing passengers to drink to excess before their flights.” “We do believe that these
comments are unfair,” says Bourienne. “We don’t deny that more can be done. For instance… at Glasgow Airport, more than 50% of the offenders are coming from large parties. “I do believe those large parties
are making group bookings with the airlines and [yet] no airline partner is telling us or the police about them [in advance]. Maybe that [information] would help us to be even more proactive. “You could have the police
welcome them at the check-in or at security and give them a talk if the guys are misbehaving, or they could
OCTOBER 2018
François Bourienne is also the Commercial Director for AGS Airports.
even check if they have been drinking before coming to the airport. So I think we can all do more together and I don’t think it’s very fair for the airlines to go public. I think they do it to make sure that there’s enough attention brought on the subject.”
Education: a good deterrent Ryanair also confirmed to TRBusiness back in June that it is continuing its policy of taking duty free alcohol purchases off its passengers before they board flights from the UK to Ibiza. “Beyond the financial impact
to the retailer, it’s a restriction of freedom for everyone,” Bourienne says about the policy. “I mean you could argue that
because there is mass drinking happening in the UK on Friday and Saturday nights that we should shut the pubs at 7pm and everyone has to go home. It’s a bit radical, but I think what Ryanair is proposing is as radical as that. “This is not what you want, because
most people just enjoy reasonably and most people are buying alcohol that they will consume at their destination. Why do you need to ban things for the majority just because you get a couple of abusers?” Bourienne doesn’t believe that
Ryanair’s solution to the problem fixes everything. “What [Ryanair] does on a couple
of flights – I think it’s to Ibiza or Alicante or Malaga sometimes in Summer – from certain airports, is
they ask the customers to give their bag at the entrance of the aircraft. This sits in one of the aircraft’s lockers and they give it them back at the end. “If they think that’s a solution…it’s
a solution, but I believe what we need is to educate more that it’s totally forbidden and a criminal offence to drink your duty free purchase before reaching your destination.” As Bourienne has already pointed
out, UK airport retailers are already communicating this to passengers at the point of sale. “You can see that when you go
in the shops…If you look at what World Duty Free are doing, as well Lagardère – both are active members of the UKTRF and signatories of the Code of Practice – the communication is written very clearly on the bag too, that it can’t be opened before reaching the final destination.” But clearly airlines like Ryanair
“I do believe those large parties are making group bookings with the airlines and [yet] no airline partner is telling us or the police about them [in advance]. Maybe that [information] would help us to be even more proactive.”
François Bourienne, Chair of the UK Travel Retail Forum (UKTR) and Commercial Director for AGS Airports
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