baroness hayter is founding director of alcohol concern. labour peer is also vice—chair of the group on alcohol abuse and has long held misgivings about its sale at airports. the way airports now work and the way they make their money is basically expecting passengers to spend a lot of money while they are there. the biggest thing that happens as you go is alcohol. cash spent on booze helps keep the price of air travel down, but has it now become too readily available? to find out for myself what's really going on, i'm heading to the airport. i'm meeting baroness hayter at gatwick to catch an early—morning flight to barcelona and to do some secret filming with my smartphone. hello. nice to see you. early morning... very early. what's the time, six o'clock? i know. i don't normally do this! £1 in every £5 spent on duty—free in gatwick is on alcohol. the first thing is, after the loos, the pub. the red lion. and you've never been to the pub at six o'clock in the morning, have you? never! it's 6am. many people in this bar are boozing before br

i'm meeting baroness hayter at gatwick to catch an early morning flight to barcelona and to do some secretming with my smartphone. hello. nice to see you. early morning... what's the time, six o'clock? i don't normally do this! £1 in every £5 spent on duty—free in gatwick is on alcohol. the first thing is, after the loos, the pub. it's six a.m.. many in this barare the pub. it's six a.m.. many in this bar are boozing before breakfast. i've counted six pints already. and a couple of bellini ‘s. i've counted six pints already. and a couple of bellini 's. make that seven. a glass of white wine already. six o'clock in the morning. the reason alcohol can be sold at airports this early is, once you are through security, licensing laws governing everywhere else don't apply. if you go half a mile outside of gatwick airport, you couldn't buy alcohol there, or anywhere else. now, why is this different? as well as bars, cafes and restaurants serving drinks, gatwick, like most uk airports, has vip languages ( as early as four o'clock. so, foreign entrance fee from £25, what do you get? —— vip lounges.