From intoxicated passengers and diverted flights to pilots arrested before takeoff, alcohol-related incidents continue to raise questions about airport safety. If regulators recognize the danger, why do airports continue selling the very substance at the center of it?
NEW YORK, NY — At virtually any major American airport, a traveler can clear security, walk to a restaurant or bar, order several alcoholic beverages, and proceed directly to the boarding gate.
Once aboard the aircraft, however, the rules change dramatically. Federal aviation regulations prohibit passengers from drinking alcohol they have brought onto an aircraft themselves. Airlines are forbidden from serving anyone who appears intoxicated, and they are prohibited from allowing visibly intoxicated passengers to board in the first place.
Yet the same passenger who cannot legally be served another drink aboard an aircraft may have purchased several drinks just minutes earlier, inside the airport itself. It raises an uncomfortable question: If alcohol presents a recognized aviation safety risk, why is it so readily available in the first place?
When Drinking Becomes a Flight Emergency
Alcohol-related disturbances are more than an inconvenience for travelers. They can result in violence against flight crews, emergency diversions, arrests, and considerable disruption to airline operations.
In September 2026, a United Airlines flight traveling from Milan to Newark Liberty International Airport was diverted to Bangor, Maine, after a passenger allegedly became violent and bit a flight attendant. Fellow passengers reported that the woman had been drinking heavily and repeatedly requesting more alcohol. The passenger faced federal charges.
In March 2024, another United Airlines flight, this one traveling from London to Newark, was diverted to Bangor after two apparently intoxicated passengers became disruptive. One passenger was charged after allegedly becoming physically aggressive toward crew members.
A month earlier, a JetBlue flight from London to John F. Kennedy International Airport experienced a disturbance involving a passenger who reportedly became aggressive toward his traveling companion and flight crew. JetBlue said its employees discovered an opened bottle of liquor brought aboard by the passenger and indications of intoxication. Other passengers helped restrain the individual before the aircraft arrived at JFK.
These are not isolated examples of the broader problem. In December 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that a New York man had pleaded guilty to interfering with a flight crew following a May 2023 incident aboard a flight from Puerto Rico to New York. Court documents described a disturbance involving alcohol brought aboard the aircraft that ultimately caused the flight to divert.
Each incident represents a failure of normal flight operations, requiring crew members to deal with situations far removed from their primary responsibilities.
And while not all unruly-passenger incidents involve alcohol, regulators have repeatedly identified drinking as a contributing factor in aviation disturbances.
Even the Pilots Are Not Immune
The danger is not confined to the passenger cabin. In January 2025, a Southwest Airlines pilot was arrested at Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport after a Transportation Security Administration officer reportedly noticed that he smelled of alcohol and appeared intoxicated.
According to police reports, the pilot had been performing preflight checks inside the cockpit before being removed. He was charged with driving under the influence, and Southwest arranged for a replacement pilot.
In another case, a Delta Air Lines pilot scheduled to fly from Edinburgh, Scotland, to New York’s JFK Airport was sentenced to 10 months in jail in March 2024 after admitting a violation of aviation alcohol limits. Security personnel had discovered bottles of liquor in his carry-on luggage before the scheduled flight.
Such incidents are exceptional, and commercial aviation maintains strict safeguards against impaired flight crews. Nevertheless, they demonstrate just how seriously the industry treats alcohol when an individual’s impairment could place an aircraft at risk.
Federal rules prohibit pilots from operating an aircraft within eight hours of consuming alcohol, while under its influence, or with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.04 percent or higher.
The standard reflects a basic recognition that aviation demands unusually high levels of judgment, coordination, and responsibility.
The FAA Has Already Sounded the Alarm
The risks associated with drinking at airports are hardly a revelation. On August 3, 2021, then-FAA Administrator Steve Dickson sent a formal letter to airport leaders across the country warning about the relationship between alcohol and unruly passenger behavior.
The letter stated: “Our investigations show that alcohol often contributes to this unsafe behavior.”
The FAA specifically urged airports to work with their concessionaires to address the problem, noting reports of airport businesses selling alcoholic beverages to go and passengers becoming intoxicated during the boarding process.
This is an important distinction. The FAA was not merely warning airlines about serving alcohol once passengers were aboard. It was identifying airport concessions themselves as part of the problem. The agency encouraged airport operators to improve passenger education, signage, and concessionaire practices.
Five years later, alcohol remains a routine part of the airport experience, even as reports of intoxicated passengers and disruptive behavior continue to surface.
A Question for the Port Authority
For the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees JFK, LaGuardia, Newark Liberty, and other regional aviation facilities, the issue presents a particularly difficult balance between commercial activity and public safety.
Airports have evolved into enormous commercial centers, filled with restaurants, bars, retail stores, and premium lounges. Alcohol is an established part of that business model, and the financial stakes are substantial.
According to the Port Authority’s 2025 financial statements, the agency generated approximately $7.3 billion in total gross operating revenue across its facilities. Its aviation operations alone were budgeted to generate approximately $3.9 billion in gross operating revenue for 2025, including roughly $1.68 billion in rental revenue.
Its financial disclosures acknowledge that concessionaire sales activity contributes to percentage-based rental income. In other words, the agency’s commercial revenue structure includes financial benefits associated with businesses selling goods and services to travelers. Alcohol is one of those goods.
The Port Authority has substantial public safety responsibilities, and the FAA has directly warned airport operators about the connection between alcohol sales and dangerous passenger behavior. It is therefore reasonable to ask whether existing safeguards are sufficient.
Are airport bartenders and restaurant operators adequately trained to recognize intoxication? Are airlines and airport concessions effectively communicating about passengers who may have consumed excessive alcohol? Does the Port Authority track alcohol-related incidents and evaluate whether changes in concession policies could reduce them? Most importantly, has the agency seriously considered restricting or eliminating alcohol sales before boarding?
Is Alcohol Really Necessary at an Airport?
When a drunk patron becomes violent at a restaurant, police can remove that person. When the same thing happens at 35,000 feet, the consequences become considerably more complicated. An emergency diversion can disrupt hundreds of travelers, require law enforcement intervention, and impose significant costs on an airline.
At some point, the question becomes whether the convenience and commercial benefits of airport alcohol sales outweigh the preventable risks.
Eliminating one readily available source of alcohol before boarding could reasonably be considered as a preventive measure.
Safety First — Unless There Is Money to Be Made?
The Port Authority and other airport operators devote enormous resources to aviation security, passenger screening, policing, and regulatory compliance. Travelers are subject to extensive restrictions designed to reduce risks before they board an aircraft.
Yet the same airport environment continues to accommodate the widespread sale and consumption of alcohol, despite years of documented incidents and explicit warnings from federal aviation regulators. This does not establish that the Port Authority has ignored those warnings or chosen revenue over safety. The agency’s current internal assessments, alcohol-related incident data, and financial dependence on liquor sales would need to be examined before reaching such a conclusion. But it exposes a legitimate public policy question.
The Port Authority is a multibillion-dollar enterprise, and the businesses operating inside its airports are part of a substantial commercial ecosystem. Every additional purchase contributes to that economy, while some concession agreements allow revenue to increase with sales. The financial incentive to preserve airport hospitality sales is clear. The public safety argument for reducing alcohol-related incidents is equally clear.
If the FAA has already identified airport alcohol sales as a contributor to unsafe behavior, why should their continued availability be treated as a commercial necessity rather than a public safety decision?
Perhaps airport bars should close before the first passenger boards. Perhaps alcohol sales should face stricter limits, or perhaps airports should stop selling it altogether. Whatever the solution, the issue deserves more than another warning to disruptive passengers after something has already gone wrong.
For the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the question is whether the revenue associated with airport concessions has become too important to challenge — even when one of the products being sold presents a known and preventable risk.
New York Airport News welcomes comment from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the FAA, airline representatives, and airport concession operators regarding existing alcohol policies and potential reforms.