Today, Ryanair has announced the introduction of £500 fines for disruptive passengers in major clamp down on passenger misconduct.
The low-cost Irish airline stated that this will be the “minimum” punishment, and that it would pursue disruptive passengers for civil damages.
It comes following a number of disruptions on Ryanair flights in recent years, in which such incidents have caused delays & diversions for passengers and a direct cost to the airline in compensation.
Last month, a British woman was removed from a flight in Portugal after reportedly making bomb threats and assaulting passengers.
In the press release, a Ryanair spokesperson said, “It is unacceptable that passengers are made suffer unnecessary disruption because of one unruly passenger’s behaviour. To help ensure that our passengers and crew travel in a comfortable and stress-free environment, without unnecessary disruption caused by a tiny number of unruly passengers, we have introduced a £500 fine, which will be issued to any passengers offloaded from aircraft as a result of their misconduct. While these are isolated events which happen across all airlines, disruptive behaviour in such a confined shared space is unacceptable, and we hope that our proactive approach will act as a deterrent to eliminate this unacceptable behaviour onboard our aircraft.”