ALBUQUERQUE — Passengers on US Airways flights to and from New Mexico will have to fly dry for the foreseeable future following a state decision to cut off the Tempe-based airline's temporary liquor license.
The New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department has refused to extend a 90-day temporary liquor license US Airways received after the state cited it for serving liquor to an intoxicated man who later crashed his car, killing himself and five others.
The decision bans liquor service on US Airways flights to and from the state starting today.
"US Airways has done little, if anything, to consider implementing the state's required alcohol server training to identify alcohol-impaired or intoxicated passengers," the department said in denying the extension.
An attorney for US Airways called the state's decision to deny the license extension premature. He said the airline planned to speak with state officials about the liquor license and its efforts to dispense training materials to employees.
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US Airways officials hand-delivered a letter to the department Wednesday, saying the airline intended to distribute New Mexico's alcohol-serving training materials to its flight attendants. The state cited US Airways in January in connection with Dana Papst, who drove head-on into a van carrying a Las Vegas, N.M., family on Interstate 25 in November. After the crash, the state prohibited US Airways from serving liquor on New Mexico flights until it received a state liquor license. The airline subsequently was granted the temporary license. US Airways had served alcohol to Papst, even though witnesses said he appeared to be intoxicated.
Police have said Papst also bought beer at a Bernalillo convenience store after getting off the flight in Albuquerque.
The state cited US Airways again in May after Ernest Wright, 49, of Albuquerque was arrested less than half an hour after leaving Albuquerque's airport. Wright, whose blood-alcohol was twice New Mexico's intoxication level, told authorities he had been drinking at the Phoenix airport and on his flight to Albuquerque.