15
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Ryanair sues passenger for €15,000 after flight was diverted due to ‘inexcusable behaviour’
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- Title
- 'Zero-tolerance': Why Ryanair is suing a passenger for €15,000
- Published
- Jan 9 2025
- Word count
- 488 words
Does anyone know what the 'unruly behaviour' was? Article doesn't seem to mention it, and it's rather important. €15000 is a lot for an individual though, I don't want to make a judgement without knowing the important details.
I've got zero reason to take Ryanair at their word, but it's very much not in their interests to divert a plane like this so I'd be surprised if it wasn't necessary. I did a bit of searching but couldn't see any specifics, although I'd also guess that as a first and potentially precedent-setting case Ryanair's lawyers will have been smart enough to pick an absolute slam dunk.
Seems like an "enemy of my enemy" kind of situation: Ryanair have a long track record of treating their customers like shit, and occasionally getting fined for it themselves - but members of the public also have a long track record of starting fights, damaging property, and generally inconveniencing and endangering the passengers and crew around them.
I don't see any major conflicts of interest inherent in letting airlines (even shitty, anti-consumer airlines) recover costs for diversions caused by passenger behaviour, given that they don't want to make those diversions in the first place and aren't likely to change any policies around it based on whether or not they'll be able to sue. It's highly unlikely to be profitable for them even if they win the case, so I do pretty much see this as the passenger responsible for delaying everyone else's trip being forced to take some level of financial responsibility for that, which sounds fair enough.
Yeah, I was also thinking: €15000/160 passengers is a bit lower than €100 euros per passenger which... is probably on the lower end than the costs of this. Ensuring they can stay a night, have dinner and breakfast along with the administrative costs is probably already way more than that. And that's not mentioning staff cost, getting other flights for all passengers etc.
I've actually evaded Ryanair once in the past for shitty treatments over their pilots iirc. But I could see this being as a good start for not tolerating shit from customers, not just in airlines.
Didn't think I would agree with a
exploitativebudget airliner like this, but well, not the weirdest thing to have happened recently.I wonder if Ryanair is trying to make an example out of them? If passengers know their behaviour could lead to heavy punishment, they may think twice about, pardon my french, doing stupid shit on the plane. It also makes me think about the recent cases of passengers trying to open emergency exits while the plane is in motion. I don't remember that being a common thing, yet now we hear about it happening a few times a year. You seldom hear about what happens to the passenger after - were there appropriate consequences? If Ryanair sets a precedent that you can sue passengers, other airlines may follow.
Looks like you’re pretty much spot on, they’ve actually put out a statement that ends with:
Having been on some Ryanair flights going to the sun holiday destinations, it's typically passengers who get shitfaced drunk at the airport bar, then are loud and aggressive on the plane for the 2 or 3 hour flight.
It's not uncommon to see the same kind of behaviour on a night out in Ireland and the UK.
I suspect alcohol is indeed involved but to deviate the plane suggests it got extremely out of hand. Either the passenger damaged the equipment enough to warrant it, or they were violent to the point of needing law enforcement involved.
I have occasionally seen articles on RTE (like this one) where flights have had to be diverted and police called to deal with an unruly passenger. I don't think it's all that rare, but suing the passenger is definitely a first.
Yep, I grew up around pilots so I've heard a looooot of stories about passengers causing issues (and yes 9 times out of 10 alcohol was involved), hence why I think it's one of the likely reasons. I'm no fan of Ryanair but I'm not against people facing consequences for really bad behaviour. If I were another passenger on that flight I'd have been livid.
The article was tagged with
damageso I do wonder.