Ryanair Sues Passengers Who Caused Flights Recovered Rp244 Million

Illustration of the Ryanair airline fleet. (Wikimedia Commons/Mike Peel)

JAKARTA - Europe's largest airline, Ryanair, is hunting for irregular passengers and disrupted flights last year, filing a claim for compensation of 15,000 euros (IDR 244,757,250).

The Irish-based airline announced on Wednesday it had filed a lawsuit against the passenger, which they said disrupted a flight from Dublin to Lanzarote in Spain in April last year.

"This unacceptable passenger behavior forced this flight to be diverted to Porto, which was delayed overnight, causing 160 passengers to face unnecessary disruption," the airline said in a statement published online.

The airline said it had filed a case at the Irish District Court for compensation for the cost of delays, which included overnight accommodation, passenger costs, and landing costs.

A Ryanair spokesman declined to provide details of the incident to CNN, but said this was the first time the company had taken civil action against a passenger in Ireland, marking a new approach to dealing with disordered passenger behavior.

"We plan to take civil action against disturbing passengers as a step to eliminate the behavior of disturbing passengers," the spokesman added.

Previously, there had been several reports of disruptive behavior on Ryanair flights in recent years.

In November, the Independent newspaper in the UK reported that Ryanair's flight was forced to notify authorities before landing in Tenerife, Spain after several passengers were disturbing and one person urinated in the aisle of the plane.

Meanwhile, a passenger who interfered with Ryanair's flight to Athens in 2020 was sentenced last month to a Greek court, sentenced to five months in prison suspended, along with a fine of 400 euros (Rp. 6,677,200).

"This shows one of the many consequences passengers will face disrupting flights as part of Ryanair's zero-tolerance policy," a spokesman for the airline said in a statement.