Ryanair has handed a five-year travel ban and are seeking damages from a passenger who disrupted a flight from Berlin to Marrakesh in January this year.
Ryanair is seemingly cracking down on disruptive behaviour after it was announced that airlines had experienced a threefold increase in unruly passenger behaviour from 2019 to 2023.
On January 9ths this year, a Polish resident disrupted a flight from Berlin to Marrakesh and left the pilots with no choice but to divert to Seville Airport so that he could be removed from the flight.
The Irish airline claims that the passenger was displaying “inexcusable behaviour” and has announced that they have issued a 5-year travel ban.
A Ryanair spokesperson stated, “It is unacceptable that passengers are suffering unnecessary disruption as a result of one unruly passenger’s behaviour. Yet this was regrettably the case for passengers on this flight from Berlin to Marrakesh in January last, which was forced to divert to Seville as a result of an individual passenger’s disruptive behaviour, causing €3,000 in damages. We have now filed civil proceedings to recover these costs from this passenger.
This demonstrates just one of the many consequences that passengers who disrupt flights will face as part of Ryanair’s zero tolerance policy, and we hope this action will deter further disruptive behaviour on flights so that passengers and crew can travel in a comfortable and respectful environment.”
ONE OF MANY CASES
At the time of writing, Ryanair are seeking damages from numerous passengers who caused delays or diversions and Lanzarote is no stranger to troublesome passengers.
Ryanair is currently seeking €15,000 in damages from a passenger who disrupted a flight from Dublin to Lanzarote last year, which caused the pilot to divert to Porto.
Additionally, the Irish airline announced that it was also taking another passenger to court that claimed to be a UN diplomat and refused to provide documentation on a flight from Lanzarote to Galicia.