Ryanair continues its campaign to punish unruly passengers, filing another lawsuit against a disruptive passenger.
On January 9, 2025, Ryanair flight 5475 from Berlin (BER) to Marrakesh (RAK) was forced to divert to Seville (SVQ) after a traveler on board became disruptive. The 170 passengers were expected to be in Marrakesh by 4:40 p.m., but as a result of the unscheduled stop, they did not reach their intended destination until shortly before 7 p.m. that same evening.
The passenger’s “inexcusable behaviour” resulted in them being offloaded at Seville and taken into custody by local authorities. They were also banned from flying with Ryanair for five years, and were reported to Spain’s Guardia Civil.
Ryanair did not specify exactly what resulted in the passenger becoming hostile, but in a statement, they said:
“It is completely unacceptable that passengers who work hard to enjoy a trip away with family/friends are robbed of the pleasure due to one passenger’s failure to behave.
“Ryanair is committed to ensuring that all passengers and crew travel in a safe and respectful environment, without unnecessary disruption caused by a tiny number of unruly passengers. Ryanair has a strict zero tolerance policy towards passenger misconduct and will continue to take decisive action to combat unruly passenger behaviour on aircraft for the benefit of the vast majority of passengers who do not disrupt flights.”
On April 8, 2025, the carrier filed legal proceedings in the Polish courts to the amount of just over €3,000 in damages against the passenger.
With regard to the filing, a Ryanair spokesperson said:
“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.”
Credit: Håkan Dahlström/Flickr | CC BY 2.0 GenericThis is not the first time that Ryanair has taken action against unruly passengers. In mid-January, the airline filed a €15,000 lawsuit against a drunk person traveling from Dublin (DUB) to Lanzarote (ACE). The incident which took place on April 9, 2024 resulted in them diverting to Porto (OPO) and spending the night.
In that instance, the recovery cost was much higher as a result of them having to pay for overnight accommodations and associated vouchers. They even called for airport and government authorities to moderate alcohol sales and consumption as airport bars.
“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.”
