Dealing with unruly passengers is, unfortunately, one of those unpleasant things that airlines have to deal with from time to time, although most international carriers don’t like to advertise the fact that their flights are occasionally the scene of disruptive and sometimes ugly, violent behavior.
The same, however, can’t be said of Ryanair, Europe’s largest low-cost carrier, which recently embarked on a major PR offensive to publicly shame as many disruptive passengers as possible.
Boasting about loutish passengers being arrested, fined, and sued might seem like a pretty strange marketing tactic, potentially reinforcing the narrative that you just don’t know what you might encounter on your next Ryanair flight, but this is exactly what the Dublin-based carrier is trying to change.
In the latest incident, Ryanair has praised a court in Malta which slapped an unruly passenger with a €2,000 fine on a recent flight from the German city of Cologne after the passenger was spotted smoking onboard and then refused to comply with crew member instructions.
It’s the kind of incident that sadly happens from time to time but other airlines wouldn’t dream of advertising that fact.
Ryanair, however, wants to prove that it’s coming down hard on unruly behavior. The drunken, yobbish behavior that the airline has become known for is no longer welcome … especially when it results in costly diversions and ground delays.
“It is unacceptable that passengers, many of whom are traveling with young families, are forced to suffer unnecessary disruption because of one unruly passenger’s behavior,” explained a Ryanair spokesperson about the carrier’s high-profile policy to prosecute unruly passengers.
“Ryanair has a strict zero-tolerance policy towards passenger misconduct, and we will continue to take action, including travel bans, supporting investigations by local law enforcement authorities, and pursuing civil damages to combat passenger misconduct onboard our flights.”
Earlier this year, Ryanair revealed that it was suing a passenger who, the airline claims, forced the planeload of families who were flying from Dublin to Lanzarote to divert to Portugal because the passenger’s behavior was so appalling.
The decision to bring its own legal action against the passenger came after prosecutors in Portugal refused to pursue a criminal case because it couldn’t be decided which jurisdiction was responsible for pressing charges.
Rather than letting the passenger go unpunished, Ryanair is now seeking €15,000 in damages, which covers the cost of the diversion, putting all the passengers in hotel accommodation overnight, and even covering the cost of lost onboard sales after the food and drink were wasted.
The airline is also bringing a private criminal prosecution in Spain against another passenger who delayed the departure of a domestic flight from Lanzarote after the passenger took someone else’s seat and then became verbally abusive towards the cabin crew.
Part of Ryanair’s high-profile media campaign against unruly passengers is also an attempt to spur governments across Europe to take disruptive passenger behavior more seriously.
In many cases, Ryanair claims local law enforcement rarely presses charges against unruly passengers, even when the airline is willing to support the investigation.
