Europe’s biggest airline, Ryanair, has filed a €15,000 (US$15,400) compensation claim against a passenger who disrupted a flight last year.
The Ireland-based budget airline announced Wednesday it had filed legal proceedings against the passengers, who it said disrupted a flight from Dublin to Lanzarote in Spain in April last year.
“The inexcusable behavior of this passenger forced this flight to be diverted to Porto, which caused overnight delays, resulting in 160 passengers facing unnecessary disruption,” the airline said in a statement published online.
The airline filed a case with the Irish Circuit Court to recover the costs of the delay, including overnight accommodation, passenger expenses and landing fees.
In recent years, there have been several reports of disruptive behavior on Ryanair flights.
In November, Britain’s Independent newspaper reported a Ryanair flight was forced to notify authorities before landing in Tenerife, Spain, after some passengers became disruptive. One of the people urinated in the aisle of the plane.
A passenger who disrupted a Ryanair flight to Athens in 2020 was sentenced last month in a Greek court. The passenger was given a five-month suspended prison sentence, along with a €400 (US$412) fine.
“This shows 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.
A Ryanair spokesperson declined to provide details of the incident to CNN. But said this was the first time the company had taken civil action against passengers in Ireland, marking a new approach to tackling unruly passenger behaviour.
“We plan to pursue civil action against disruptive passengers as a step to eliminate disruptive passenger behavior,” the spokesperson added. (CNN/Z-3)
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