Ryanair have taken a passenger to court after they were forcibly removed from a flight from Lanzarote to Galicia when he failed to produce his boarding pass and claimed to be a UN diplomat.
In January this year, a passenger on a flight from Lanzarote to Galicia requested to be moved to a preferential seat at the front of the aircraft, claiming to be a UN diplomat. When cabin staff asked him to produce his boarding pass, he refused, and the captain took the decision to expel him from the flight.
Guardia Civil officers boarded the plane shortly after and forcible removed the passenger, and the flight was delayed by 40 minutes.
This week it has been revealed that Ryanair have taken the passenger to court seeking damages caused by the 40-minute delay and unnecessary disruption to 137 passengers.
A Ryanair spokesperson said, “It is unacceptable that passengers, many of whom are on a family holiday, are suffering unnecessary delay as a result of one unruly passenger’s behaviour.
“Yet this was regrettably the case for passengers on this flight from Lanzarote to Santiago in January, during which a disruptive passenger caused a departure delay due to his misconduct.
We have initiated a private criminal prosecution against this passenger, in which the court may impose a sentence of 3-12 months imprisonment or a fine of 6-18 months’ salary. These are just some of the potential consequences under Ryanair’s zero tolerance policy for passengers who disrupt flights.
“We hope this example will deter further disruptive behaviour on Ryanair flights, so that passengers and crew can travel in a comfortable and respectful environment as is their right”, they added in closing.
Earlier this year, Ryanair announced it was seeking 15,000 euros in damages from a passenger that disrupted a flight from Dublin to Lanzarote, which caused the pilot to divert to Porto.
It is clear that Ryanair is clamping down on unacceptable behaviour on flights – last summer airlines announced that there had been a threefold increase in unruly passenger behaviour from 2019 to 2023, with an increase in cases of intoxication, aggression, inappropriate behaviour, and failure to follow cabin crew instructions.