Ryanair has waded into a debate on how to curb drunken behaviour on flights by suggesting passengers should be limited to only buying two drinks each at the airport, telegrapgh.co.uk reported.

The budget carrier says the problem passengers are those who “preload” in the departure lounge rather than those who drink once onboard flights, in response to BBC Panorama investigation into the issue that aired on Monday.

Statistics from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) reveal that there was a 600 per cent increase in disruptive incidents recorded on planes between 2012 and 2016, while figures obtained by Panorama showed that there has been a 50 per cent surge in the number of alcohol-related arrests made at airports in the last 12 months.

A spokesman for the Irish carrier said that it wants to see all sales of alcohol banned in bars and restaurants before 10am, a mandatory requirement introduced for boarding passes to be shown when purchasing alcohol, and for limits to then be placed on the number of drinks each passenger is allowed to purchase, with the maximum being two.

Ryanair’s marketing manager Kenny Jacobs, said that he thought it was “completely unfair that airports can profit from the unlimited sale of alcohol to passengers and leave the airlines to deal with the safety consequences".

He said: "This is a particular problem during flight delays when airports apply no limit to the sale of alcohol in airside bars and restaurants. This is an issue which the airports must now address and we are calling for significant changes to prohibit the sale of alcohol at airports, particularly with early morning flights and when flights are delayed."

Ryanair claimed that very little alcohol was sold on its flights as they are all short-haul, suggesting passengers were getting drunk in airports.

The airline had already taken measures to prevent disruptive behaviour by not permitting customers to consume their duty-free purchases on board and banning passengers flying from Glasgow Prestwick and Manchester to Alicante and Ibiza from taking duty-free alcohol on board at all.

“Those who have purchased duty free alcohol will be asked to put it into the hold or leave their purchases behind,” the airline said.