In the past, I’ve covered at least three instances of Ryanair publicly commenting on legal action taken against unruly passengers.
In the latest update, they have announced that they will at minimum, fine passengers €500 (£500 if they operate under the Ryanair UK arm) if disruptive behavior results in them being offloaded from the aircraft.
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.”
The airline also said that while they will charge €500 at minimum, if an incident significantly inconveniences other passengers (such as a diversion), the disruptive passenger(s) may face further legal action. In April and May, two separate passengers were ordered to pay around €3,000 in fines, while one passenger was handed a €15,000 fine in January after their flight was forced to overnight in Porto.
I’m curious as to how the airline plans to plans to enforce this fine. Will they take them to small claims court? Will they send a bill in the mail. I’m sure the time and effort put into recovering this fee won’t be worth it from a financial point of view, but it would sure sting whoever is being penalized.
In many of these cases, alcohol is usually to blame. In the holiday spirit, some passengers booze up at the airport, and by the time they’ve boarded the aircraft, the effects of the alcohol set in.
Will Ryanair’s new fine be enough to discourage passengers? Who knows. However, airport officials do need to revisit the limits on alcohol distribution at its terminals. Maybe have bars implement a hard limit of one to two per customer?
In a previous statement, Ryanair said:
“During flight delays, passengers are consuming excess alcohol at airports without any limit on purchase or consumption. We fail to understand why passengers at airports are not limited to 2 alcoholic drinks (using their boarding pass in exactly the same way they limit duty free sales), as this would result in safer and better passenger behaviour on board aircraft, and a safer travel experience for passengers and crews all over Europe.”
