- Ryanair is seeking legal damages against a passenger after a flight disruption during a flight last April.
Irish budget airline Ryanair is seeking over $15,000 in damages after a passenger’s misconduct forced a Dublin flight bound for the Spanish island of Lanzarote to divert to Porto, the second-largest city in Portugal, which is nearly 1,400 miles away.
Europe’s top airline said the passenger’s “inexcusable behavior” forced 160 passengers to stay in Porto overnight, forcing the airline to pay for hotel accommodations, passenger expenses, and landing costs.
While the disruptive passenger remains unnamed, the airline is looking to recoup its costs in Irish court. In the EU, passengers on flights that have been delayed until the following day can receive a hotel stay, transportation, and meals on the airline’s dime.
Fortune has reached out to Ryanair for comment.
“Ryanair has a strict zero tolerance policy towards passenger misconduct and will continue to take decisive action to combat unruly passengers behavior on aircraft,” the company said in a statement.
While the low-cost airline seeks to affirm its zero-tolerance policy, in December 2024 it welcomed a conviction in Greek court of a disruptive passenger who received a five-month suspended sentence and a $400 fine for refusing to follow crew instruction.
