Which Airlines Are Dry (No Alcohol)?

For many people, alcohol is an aspect of traveling by air that they enjoy. I’m not just talking about first or business class travel, where a glass of champagne might be part of the fun. Airports are also one of the few places where you can have a drink at 5AM and not be judged (too hard).

Admittedly customs differ around the globe, based on culture, religion, etc. In this post I thought it would be interesting to talk a bit about dry airlines, as there’s a bit of nuance to this.

Which airlines don’t serve alcohol onboard? Which airlines don’t serve alcohol but let you bring your own alcohol? And does all of this even matter?

Which airlines don’t serve alcohol?

Let’s start by taking a look at the airlines that are dry, meaning that they don’t serve you alcohol. Here are the airlines that come to mind:

• Air Arabia
• Biman Bangladesh
• EgyptAir
• Iran Air
• Iraqi Airways
• Jazeera Airways
• Kuwait Airways
• Mahan Air
• Pakistan International Airlines
• Royal Brunei Airlines
• Saudia
• Turkmenistan Airlines

Admittedly that list isn’t totally exhaustive, since there are a countless number of small airlines out there. However, I think this covers the biggest and most interesting airlines that don’t serve alcohol (though if I missed any major ones, please let me know).

Which dry airlines will let you bring your own alcohol?

There’s an interesting twist to this. While some airlines are dry, they’ll let you bring your own alcohol onboard, and then you can consume it (within reason). The following three international carriers come to mind:

• EgyptAir
• Kuwait Airways
• Royal Brunei Airlines

Now, it’s important to note that this isn’t without strings attached:

• It’s at the crew’s discretion whether you can consume alcohol or not; if you plan to consume alcohol, definitely ask the crew for permission first, or else there could be consequences
• Often there are restrictions around the situations in which you can bring alcohol; for example, on Royal Brunei you can only consume alcohol on flights to Brunei, since alcohol is banned in the country (so it would need to be dumped before landing), while on EgyptAir you could even buy it in duty free in Cairo, and then consume it onboard

When I flew Kuwait Airways several years back, I wrote about how we brought a bottle of wine onboard, and they gladly let us consume it. It’s not that I couldn’t be without alcohol, but I was curious to experience a BYOB concept on a plane.

Which airlines are dry on certain routes?

There’s an added layer of complexity to all of this, as there are some airlines that aren’t generally dry, but are dry on certain routes. Several situations come to mind (let me know if I’m missing any):

• Airlines flying to & from Saudi Arabia can’t serve alcohol in Saudi Arabian airspace; while they could technically serve drinks outside of that airspace, most airlines just ban alcohol on Saudi Arabia routes altogether, to keep things simple
• There are several airlines that don’t serve alcohol on domestic flights, including Air India, Oman Air, Thai Airways, and Turkish Airlines
• Malaysia Airlines doesn’t serve alcohol on regional flights within Southeast Asia, but does serve alcohol on longer, international routes
• Unrelated to whether airlines are dry or not, keep in mind that some airlines don’t serve alcohol on the ground, since alcohol is often taxed in such situations

Is it worth avoiding dry airlines?

People have different takes as to how “bad” it is to fly on a dry airline. On the one end of the spectrum, there are people who will avoid dry airlines at all costs. On the other end of the spectrum, you have billions of people who don’t drink alcohol at all, so this is a non-issue.

Personally I’m probably somewhere in the middle:

• When I’m not traveling, I rarely drink alcohol; I never drink at home, but might once in a while have a drink or two if I go out to dinner, but that’s about it
• I don’t really drink alcohol on domestic flights, since usually airlines aren’t serving good stuff anyway
• On international premium cabin flights, I do typically enjoy a couple of drinks; there’s something fun about it at times, and for that matter, I’m a horrible airplane sleeper, so a bit of alcohol does help me get at least some sleep
• It’s also worth emphasizing that even if you do usually drink, there is merit to drinking less when you fly; alcohol dehydrates you, and arguably alcohol is bad for helping you get over jet lag
• One thing that frustrates me about many dry airlines is how little effort they put into their non-alcoholic drinks; it’s fine not to have alcohol, but at least have a great selection of soft drinks, coffee, tea, etc.

Bottom line

Airlines often reflect their local customs and religions, so it’s not surprising that many airlines don’t serve alcohol onboard. If you definitely want alcohol when you fly, avoid airlines like Saudia. If you would like a drink when you fly, the good news is that some dry airlines actually let you bring your own alcohol, within certain limitations.

While the above doesn’t cover 100% of situations, hopefully it’s a useful, basic rundown of some of the bigger airlines that are dry.

How strongly do you feel about dry airlines? Does this policy impact your airline choice?