The price range airline has warned this is not going to be the final time it goes to courtroom over unacceptable behaviour on its plane.
Irish airline Ryanair is suing a passenger for €15,000 after unruly behaviour onboard one in every of its flights.
It’s the first civil motion of its type in Eire and comes as a part of the low-cost provider’s zero-tolerance coverage for inflicting disruption on board.
The passenger in query had triggered a flight from Dublin to Lanzarote final yr to be diverted.
The airline has warned this is not going to be the final time it goes to courtroom over unacceptable behaviour on its plane.
Ryanair sues passenger for disruptive behaviour
Ryanair filed authorized proceedings within the Irish Circuit Court docket on 20 December for greater than €15,000 in damages in opposition to a passenger that triggered a flight from Dublin to Lanzarote to be diverted to Portugal.
The aircraft was pressured to stay in Porto in a single day on 9 April 2023 and the airline had to supply 160 passengers with in a single day lodge lodging.
“This passenger’s inexcusable behaviour pressured this flight to divert to Porto the place it was delayed in a single day, inflicting 160 passengers to face pointless disruption in addition to dropping a full day of their vacation,” the airline mentioned in a press release.
“It’s fully unacceptable that passengers who work arduous to get pleasure from a visit away with household/mates are robbed of the pleasure on account of one passenger’s failure to behave.”
The airline has not given any additional particulars on the id of the passenger or what they did to trigger the flight to be diverted.
Ryanair threatens unruly passengers with courtroom motion
The airline has underlined that future disruptive behaviour – which incorporates each verbal and bodily abuse – may be met with authorized proceedings.
“Ryanair has a strict zero tolerance coverage in direction of passenger misconduct and can proceed to take decisive motion to fight unruly passenger behaviour on plane for the advantage of the overwhelming majority of passengers who don’t disrupt flights,” the airline continued in its assertion.
“[The court action] demonstrates simply one of many many penalties that passengers who disrupt flights will face as a part of Ryanair’s zero tolerance coverage, and we hope this motion will deter additional disruptive behaviour on flights in order that passengers and crew can journey in a cushty and respectful setting,” a spokesperson added.
Will different airways sue over unruly behaviour?
Whereas that is the primary incidence of an airline suing a passenger over disruptive behaviour, it may set a precedent for different firms.
Dr Brian Flanagan, an affiliate professor on the College of Legislation and Criminology at Maynooth College, instructed RTÉ Information that “different airways are going to be trying intently at it”.
“I believe whether it is profitable you’ll have lots of people within the trade being fairly happy and you may also have potential passengers being happy that there’s this avenue of recourse,” he mentioned.
