Disruptive passengers who are removed from Ryanair flights will now be slapped with a €500 fine by the airline.
Ryanair has introduced the charge in an attempt to deter unruly behaviour on board flights, an issue it said affects the entire industry.
“Passengers expect to travel in a comfortable and stress-free environment with an on-time arrival, free from unnecessary disruption caused by a tiny number of unruly passengers,” Ryanair said in a statement.
The new fine is in addition to Ryanair pursuing them for civil damages, the Irish airline said.
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Ryanair has changed its terms and conditions, which now state that it reserves “the right to fine you €500 where your behaviour results in you being offloaded, including where no diversion was required”.
The new article 11 of the terms and conditions says that, Ryanair can take any measures it considers reasonably necessary to deal with disruptive behaviour.
“You may be removed from the plan and refused a seat on any other flight, and may be prosecuted for offences you committed on the plane,” it says.
The airline states it may take these or other steps where, “in our reasonable opinion”, someone causes a danger to any person or property on a plane, prevents the crew from performing its duties, does not follow any instructions of the crew, or angers, offends, intimidates, frightens or injures any passenger or crew member.
In April, Ryanair said it had filed legal action against a passenger who had allegedly disrupted a flight from Berlin to Marrakesh, claiming more than €3,000 in damages. The flight was forced to divert to Seville, where the passenger was offloaded.
Last month, a flight between Tenerife and Scotland was forced to divert to Portugal after a passenger allegedly made fake bomb threats, while another en route to Corfu a few weeks previously diverted to Italy to offload two passengers who the airline said were disruptive.
“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,” a spokesperson said.
“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 on-board our aircraft.”
The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) last year said there has been a “significant” increase in the number of incidents involving difficult and unruly passengers on flights operated by Irish air carriers.
In its annual safety performance review, the IAA said there were 426 incidents relating to difficult and unruly passengers reported to the IAA last year, an increase from 298 in 2022.
