Originally Posted by
Aviatrix
"No empty bottles" is an EU-wide rule - not just ATH.
As for the wider issue - I agree that it is absolutely essential that air travellers are given an opportunity to obtain water to take on board (especially for long-haul flights), and I think there ought to be a world-wide rule requiring airports to give passengers that opportunity - either by selling water after security (i.e., at the gate if the security checkpoint is at the gate), or by selling it in tamper-proof bags (as happens at Schiphol). I can't think of any reason why duty free shops could NOT sell water - so why don't they?
I don't think there is any reason - except the fact that bottles of water don't make a lot of money compared to whiskies, wines, perfume, and all the other expensive liquids sold at Duty Free stores, and thus there's little incentive for the stores to sell them.
If you couldn't take on ANY liquids on-board I'd probably just shrug, and think it's an annoyance, but that's the way it is. However, it makes me a little sick seeing the way that these airports have immediately made sure their duty-free stores were stocked up with tamper-proof bags to ensure that their profitable lines weren’t affectived, but haven't for one moment thought about passenger in-flight health, which seems to be gloomily low on the agenda in comparison.
I agree that surely it makes sense to either install vending machines in the gates, or offer it for sale on the plane - I'd happily pay a premium price for water to avoid 11 hours dehydration. I'm sure flight crews would be happier as well, as I can't imagine its fun for them to have passengers continually haranguing them for water.