Ryanair, Europe’s biggest airline, is going after unruly passengers on its flights and has filed for €15,000 ($15,400) in damages from a passenger who disrupted a flight last year.
The Ireland-based budget airline announced Wednesday that it has filed legal proceedings against the passenger, who, it said, disrupted a flight from Dublin to Lanzarote in Spain in April of last year.
“This passenger’s inexcusable behaviour forced this flight to divert to Porto where it was delayed overnight, causing 160 passengers to face unnecessary disruption,” the airline said in a statement published online.
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The carrier said it has filed a case in the Irish Circuit Court seeking to recover the costs of the delay, which included overnight accommodation, passenger expenses, and landing costs.
There have been several reports of disruptive behavior on Ryanair flights in recent years.
In November, the UK’s Independent newspaper reported that a Ryanair flight was forced to alert authorities before landing in Tenerife, Spain after several passengers became disruptive and one person urinated in the aisle.
A passenger who disrupted a Ryanair flight to Athens in 2020 was convicted last month in a Greek court and given a five-month suspended jail sentence, along with a €400 ($412) fine.
“This demonstrates just one of the many consequences that passengers who disrupt flights will face as part of Ryanair’s zero tolerance policy,” a spokesperson for the airline said in a statement.
“We plan to pursue civil action against disruptive passengers as a move towards eliminating disruptive passenger behaviour,” the spokesperson added.
