For most people, the idea of a pint with breakfast is pretty grim. But at the Wetherspoon’s in Stansted’s departure lounge on Thursday morning, it appeared to be the beverage of choice.

“It’s a holiday ritual,” said Dee Wood, 60, a waste policy officer, who was enjoying a pint while waiting to board her Alicante-bound morning flight. “It’s like the start of holiday,” said her friend Rachel Almond, 59, a community planner, who was treating herself to a lager. “We don’t get drunk, we just have a pint, say cheers and off we go.”

Michelle Webb opted for a glass of wine instead. “I don’t like anything else,” she said. For the trio, who were heading to Spain, starting their day with an alcoholic brew was not normal procedure. “We’re not nervous flyers or anything,” said Wood. “You wouldn’t be drinking a pint at home at this time of day but it’s just nice to do something different.”

But if Michael O’Leary, gets his way, an early morning pint could become a thing of the past. The Ryanair boss said airports should be banned from serving alcohol before early flights to reduce the number of disruptive passengers on planes, telling the Times on Wednesday that Ryanair was having to divert an average of nearly one flight a day because of bad behaviour onboard, up from one a week 10 years ago.

The trio acknowledge that there may be occasional alcohol-induced bad behaviour on some flights. “If you were working on the plane and you’ve got people who have had a few drinks, it can be a bit threatening, I guess, so I completely understand,” said Wood.” “But for us, its just a drink before boarding to say our holiday starts here.”

In fact, she recalls one trip where a bit of booze made for better flying experience, turning the plane into a “party bus”.

“We had the most hilarious flight of our life a couple of years back, it was a party atmosphere,” she said. Almond recalled that “there was singing and it was the day before King Charles’s coronation”. She said there was a stag party who wore face masks bearing the monarch’s image.

“Nobody was disrespectful to anybody, nobody was out of order or especially drunk,” said Wood. “It’s unusual to say the plane ride is the best part of the holiday because you just want to get there, but for me it really was. It was amazing.”

A few tables down, Cerys Parnell was enjoying a pint of Corona while waiting for her flight to San Sebastián, where she planned to “eat lots, chill and hang by the pool” and maybe “drink more”.

While the 24-year-old accountant would never normally have a pint at this time in the morning, she said her pre-flight beverage marked a “sense of freedom and venturing out of your normal routine”, calling it a “symbol of unwinding and relaxation. It’s probably the only socially acceptable time you can have a pint before 10am.”

Parnell doubts O’Leary’s call for a ban is serious: “I don’t see any harm in having a single pint and I don’t think he would either.” She also fails to see why the time of day would be relevant. “If it was seven at night and someone was antisocial I would also say they shouldn’t be drinking either – even though that is a socially acceptable time to be drinking. It’s not really timing, it’s more the amount.”

She is far from the only person taking against O’Leary’s call. The boss of JD Wetherspoon’s, Tim Martin, told the Times a ban was an “overreaction” that would be “extraordinarily difficult to implement”.

But some holidaymakers opted for something less potent. “We’ve been up early,” said Alisha Philip, 34, a team leader, who had just finished her cup of breakfast tea. She was heading to the south of France with her partner, Sean Ryan, who also went for a non-alcoholic drink.

The 44-year-old football coach said the pair had “no problem” with others enjoying a morning pint. “For me, it’s just part of the culture in England, especially when they’re going on holiday,” he said.

Philip agreed: “It’s just the norm. People come and have a pre-drink before their holiday but its personal preference and we’re not really drinkers.”

The couple also doubt the urgent need for a ban. “I’ve never personally seen anybody with an issue with alcohol on a flight,” said Ryan. “That’s my experience.”