If you were hoping Southwest Airlines would restore alcohol sales onboard this autumn, you will be disappointed. The Dallas-based carrier will not resume onboard alcohol sales until at least January 2022.
Southwest Airlines Extends Alcohol Ban Into 2022
In a memo sent to flight attendants by Randall Miller, Senior Manager of Inflight Operations, Southwest Airlines tied the return of alcohol to the lifting of the federal mask mandate, currently set to expire early next year:
“With the mask mandate being extended to January 18, 2022, there are no current plans to bring back alcohol prior to January 2022.”
This marks the second time alcohol sales have been pushed back on Southwest. After being the first carrier to eliminate all service onboard in March 2020 due to COVID-19 fears, the carrier announced it would bring back liquor sales in June 2021.
But due to an escalation in the incidence of onboard misbehavior by passengers, including an incident in which a passenger punched a flight attendant, breaking two of her teeth and causing other injuries, Southwest delayed the restoration of alcohol sales until fall.
At the time, a Southwest spokesperson explained:
“Given the recent uptick in industry-wide incidents of passenger disruptions in-flight, we have made the decision to pause the previously announced restart of alcohol service onboard. We realize this decision may be disappointing for some customers, but we feel this is the right decision at this time in the interest of the safety and comfort of all customers and crew on board.”
But when the Biden Administration ordered the federal mask mandate be extended into January 2022, the alcohol ban was extended.
Flight attendants contend that alcohol leads passengers to keep their masks off longer and become more combative onboard.
To that first point, Southwest will add orange juice, cranberry cocktail juice, ginger ale, seltzer water, and tonic water to its drink menu starting in next month. Currently, only Coca Cola, Diet Coke, 7UP, and water are available.
Miller attributed the additional beverages to pre-orders that could not be cancelled. All five additional drinks constitute mixers for alcoholic cocktails.
“With our original timeline to return alcohol service, we needed to proactively source seltzer and tonic water to ensure availability. Due to the longer lead times to produce product and other supply constraints we’ve experienced, when our original plans changed, we still had an obligation to these suppliers.”
Southwest’s move mimics that of American Airlines, which earlier announced it too would continue to suspend onboard liquor sales into 2022. Unlike Southwest, which does not have a first class, American Airlines serves complimentary alcoholic beverages to first class passengers.
My Take
Southwest Airlines will delay the sales of alcoholic beverages onboard till at least January 2022. While it hopes this will lead passengers to keep their masks on and cut down on poor behavior onboard, it may have directly the opposite effect. Not offering alcohol may instead embolden passengers to bring it onboard in larger quantities or consume greater quantities in airport bars prior to their flight, creating the potential for even more disturbances.
Withholding alcohol sales creates an environment more likely to cause problems since illicit portions cannot be controlled and anxiousness of flying is worsened by a lack of access to alcohol (and snacks).
However, this is one opinion I would be happy to be proven wrong on…
image: Southwest Airlines
Whenever I have a glass or two of vino, I enjoy a ciggie to go with it. A pack of smokes will last me a month. If I can’t have a smoke with my hooch, I don’t want the booze. Can’t smoke on planes. See where I’m going? I don’t drink alcohol on planes. This extended spirits ban affects me in no way whatsoever.
Blaming alcohol for incidents on flights in which no alcohol was served makes the opposite of sense.
Unless alcohol was brought onboard by the customer, which undermines the argument of WN flight attendants.
I don’t “need” a drink on a 2 hour flight. Sometimes, I want one. I have my doubts about the hypothesis that selling a beer or 2 in Y directly results in some kind of automatic bad behavior. I suppose if it leads to more mask “enforcement” encounters between crew and pax, I might be able to see the link. In any event, I have a “thing” about not paying to be treated like a truant child, which in my mind, is exactly what is happening here. So…. You won’t find me flying WN or AA in Y until this nonsense ends unless I have absolutely no other option.
No big deal, I always bring my own.
The problem isn’t booze on flights; the problem is a culture that would rather get rid of the police and prisons than have to behave like civilized human beings because that limits my freedom and fun. Hollyweird and corporate America cheer the concept.
Good!
A group of 13 flyers from seven states, the District of Columbia, and Israel filed a civil complaint Monday night against seven major airlines charging them with conspiring to ban tens of millions of Americans with medical condition who can’t tolerate wearing face coverings from using the nation’s aviation system. It’s the first class-action lawsuit in the country challenging airlines’ mask mandates.
“Plaintiffs are a group of disabled (and one nondisabled) airline passengers who have been restricted from flying by the defendants for more than a year because of their enforcement of mask mandates that violate numerous provisions of federal and international laws, plus breach their contracts and violate tort law and the Constitution,” according to the 227-page amended complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Orlando that charges the airlines and their executives with 30 counts of violating various laws and regulations. “The one plaintiff who does not have a disability represents a class of flyers who strongly object to forced masking as a violation of their rights under federal law and the contracts of carriage.”