Ryanair has initiated a private criminal prosecution in Spain against a passenger who caused a departure delay to a flight in January.
The low-cost carrier said that the passenger caused a 40-minute departure delay for Ryanair flight 2001, travelling between Lanzarote and Santiago on January 17, 2025. Ryanair also claims that the passenger caused “unnecessary disruption” to the 137 other passengers on-board the aircraft, before he was removed from the flight by the Guardia Civil.
Ryanair stated that the delay was caused after the passenger, who claimed to be a UN diplomat with “diplomatic immunity", attempted to take a seat that was not assigned to him, becoming “verbally abusive” when crew asked to see his boarding card.
“We have initiated a private criminal prosecution against this passenger, in which the court may impose a sentence of 3-12-months of imprisonment, or a fine of 6-18-months’ salary,” said a spokesperson for the airline.
This latest criminal action against a passenger follows the initiation of legal proceedings in the Irish Circuit Court announced in January, where Ryanair is seeking over €15,000 in damages from a passenger who disrupted flight between Dublin and Lanzarote on April 9, 2024.
In this case the passenger's behaviour resulted in the flight being forced to divert to Porto where it was delayed overnight, causing 160 passengers to “face unnecessary disruption”.
Ryanair reaffirmed that it has a “zero tolerance policy” towards passenger misconduct on-board its flights.
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