Ryanair sues unruly passenger following flight diversion
January 9, 2025
In the first civil case of its kind in Ireland, Ryanair has launched legal action against an unruly passenger; seeking over €15,000 in damages after their “inexcusable behaviour” caused a flight to divert, where it was delayed overnight.
Flight FR7142 had been on route from Dublin to Lanzarote in April 2024 when an individual’s as-yet unspecified “disruptive behaviour” necessitated a diversion into Portugal’s Porto. 160 passengers were affected by the incident, which Ryanair estimates to have cost €15,000 in overnight accommodation, passenger expenses, and landing costs.
“Ryanair has a strict zero tolerance policy towards passenger misconduct and will continue to take decisive action to combat unruly passenger behaviour on aircraft for the benefit of the vast majority of passengers who do not disrupt flights,” said the airline in a statement. It has now initiated legal proceedings in the Irish Circuit Court.
In December 2024, Ryanair also welcomed the decision of a Greek court to “convict a passenger who disrupted a flight to Athens in July 2020 by refusing to follow crew instructions”. The passenger received a five-month suspended sentence and a $400 fine.
Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has previously publicly called for a limit on alcohol to be served at airports in an attempt to help curb potential disruptive behaviour, telling the Independent: “We and most of the airlines around Europe are seeing a spike upwards, particularly this summer, of disgruntled passengers on board” – attributing flight delays to people spending more time drinking before boarding the aircraft.
Attempting to recoup costs caused by apparent bad behaviour is by no means unique to Ryanair. In January 2024, an 18 year old man appeared in a Spanish court after an apparently joke bomb threat text message sent to his friends was intercepted by security services. The Spanish Defense Military subsequently scrambled two F/A-18s to intercept the airliner at a cost of around $103,000; part of the proposed $120,000 fine. The charge, and the fine, were subsequently dropped.
In 2022, the US Department of Transportation’s FAA also proposed its largest-ever fines – $81,950 and $77,272 respectively – against two passengers for alleged unruly behaviour. In the first instance, the FAA alleged a passenger onboard an American Airlines flight “threatened to hurt the flight attendant” before pushing them aside, attempting to open the cabin door, and subsequently “repeatedly hit one of the flight attendants on the head”. The second passenger travelling with Delta Air Lines allegedly “attempted to hug and kiss the passenger seated next to her, walked to the front of the aircraft to try to exit during flight, refused to return to her seat, and bit another passenger multiple times”.
