Three years ago I was on a flight from Paris to Boston when a man on the airplane insisted on taking out a fifth of vodka from his carry-on bag and chugging it mid-flight. As much as the soon-to-be college student in me was in full support of his decision, I knew it was against airline regulations to drink alcohol that wasn't served on the plane — let alone your own duty-free liquor bottle.

From the looks of it, airlines and airports are becoming even more strict regarding alcohol consumption. Just last week, Air India announced that they will be limiting the amount of alcoholic drinks consumed on their flights. They are limiting consumption to three 45 ml containers of hard alcohol like whiskey and vodka, two 200 ml bottles of wine or three 16 oz beers.

Banning alcohol on airlines isn't a new rule. Saudi Airlines, amongst some others, do not allow the consumption or on-board presence of alcohol due to Islamic law, which makes complete sense.

Other airlines, like Air India, are now looking at limiting the consumption of alcohol on flights that do allow alcohol.

There has even been talk of limiting alcohol consumption in English and Welsh airports due to the “disruption” that drinkers can cause for other passengers. Frankly, all of these regulations seem relatively archaic.

There are a lot of reasons why people drink and while drinking is legal at 18-21 years old in most of the world, it can still cause problems. But just as people can make their own decisions about alcohol consumption at a bar, at their home or at a friend's, they can also make that decision on an airplane.

So, what exactly is dumb about limiting alcohol on airlines? 

Pregaming the Flight

First of all, if people's alcohol consumption is limited on the airplane, this could cause them to overdo it before boarding. It’s the classic threw up when I got to the bar because I’m not old enough to legally drink yet story. When people are limited, they are going to find a way to do what they want regardless.

Not only is pregaming the flight bad because someone could end up sick before take off, but then they will also still have their “allowed” drinks on the plane, potentially causing them to get more drunk than they would have otherwise.

The Human Size

It is not a new fact that the amount of alcohol your body can handle is relative to your size. There are many factors to getting drunk but this one is especially important when on an airplane. If a 200 pound man sitting next to my 120 pound self had 3 bottles of wine, he would maybe be tipsy, whereas I would be well on my way to drunk.

Unless we want to start breathalyzing airline passengers, it’s just not fair to limit drinks by number.

Fears of Flying

Although alcohol is not medication and I in no way condone drinking to ease life problems, alcohol takes the edge off regardless of what anyone says.

A lot of people — and around 6.5 percent of Americans — have an intense fear of flying. If having a drink or two (or five) on the airplane is going to make that easier and you're not going to bother anyone, then be my guest.

Flight Lengths

Flights go all around the world. You can literally fly for 45 minutes to a neighboring city or for 17 hours halfway across the world. On an international flight, a passenger might have two glasses of wine with dinner, a beer mid-flight and another drink towards the end of the flight. Over the course of eight, ten or 12 hours, that’s not a lot of alcohol.

It might be a bit excessive to have four drinks on an hour-long flight, but it's unlikely that the flight attendant would even have enough time to serve you that much considering the plane is only at cruising altitude for about 20 minutes.

Traveling as Celebration

Planes mean travel. And travel often means vacation. Vacation can be an exciting time for celebration. Starting off at the airport with a cocktail in celebration is not uncommon and some people genuinely enjoy having a drink on the plane to kick off their well-deserved holiday.

Also, people traveling on business may want to share a few drinks with co-workers to bond and get excited for their upcoming business trip. There are a lot of reasons people might be drinking on planes — who are we to put a damper on their good time?

Flight Attendants aka Bartenders

Just like bartenders, flight attendants DO stop serving when a passenger is intoxicated. They are trained to do so and are well-aware of what the passengers are up to. The flight attendants communicate with one another on how to handle the situation if one arises.

Although it takes a lot to physically restrain a passenger, the flight attendants are prepared and trained to handle an intoxicated passenger when necessary.

In my 22 years of life, the flight I described was the one of two times I have noticed people openly trying to get wasted on an airplane (the other time was when I was on an airplane from New York to Chicago sitting dangerously close to a bachelorette party).

At the end of the day, the man on my flight definitely deserved the vodka-confiscation that the flight attendant gave him, but no harm came to anyone. And the bride and bridesmaids — they were just having a good time.

Basically, further alcohol restrictions on airlines and in airports seem pretty ridiculous to me until it starts becoming an uncontrollable problem. In the meantime...