Ryanair has vowed to take legal action after a passenger’s “inexcusable behaviour” caused delays and disruption to one of its flights. The airline sued the passenger through Spanish courts after the flight from Lanzarote to Santiago was delayed by 40 minutes.

In a statement, the airline said that the passenger, who claimed to be a UN diplomat with diplomatic immunity, sat in the wrong seat and became “verbally abusive” when asked to produce a boarding card. Spanish authorities removed him from the flight but not before causing disruption for the 137 passengers onboard. The airline has a zero-tolerance attitude towards poor passenger behaviour and has vowed to recover disruption costs from poorly behaved travellers.

A spokesperson said: “It is unacceptable that passengers, many of whom are on a family holiday, are suffering unnecessary delay as a result of one unruly passenger’s behaviour.

“Yet this was regrettably the case for passengers on this flight from Lanzarote to Santiago in January, during which a disruptive passenger caused a departure delay due to his misconduct.

“We have initiated a private criminal prosecution against this passenger, in which the court may impose a sentence of 3-12 months imprisonment or a fine of 6-18 months’ salary. These are just some of the potential consequences under Ryanair’s zero tolerance policy for passengers who disrupt flights.

They added: “We hope this example will deter further disruptive behaviour on Ryanair flights, so that passengers and crew can travel in a comfortable and respectful environment as is their right.”

Earlier this year, the company initiated legal action against a passenger after their behaviour forced a flight to be diverted to Porto overnight.

The airline sought to reclaim £12,500 in costs after it was forced to pay additional landing and handling fees and accommodate passengers overnight in a hotel.

The Irish airline’s boss, Michael O’Leary told Sky News: “If passengers continue disrupting our flights, we will sue you for the cost of those diversions and those disruptions. We’re having two or three of these diversions a week.”

Following the incident, O’Leary led calls for limits to be introduced on the amount of alcohol people can purchase in an airport departure lounge, similar to measures currently in place for duty-free.

A Ryanair spokesperson said: “It is time that EU authorities take action to limit the sale of alcohol at airports. We fail to understand why passengers at airports are not limited to two alcoholic drinks (using their boarding pass in exactly the same way they limit duty-free sales), as this would result in safer and better passenger behaviour on board aircraft, and a safer travel experience for passengers and crews all over Europe.”

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency notes an increase in the number and severity of flight disruptions since 2020.

Additionally, data provided by the International Air Transport Association estimates that one disruptive incident occurred for every 480 flights worldwide in 2023, an increase from one in 568 flights in 2022.

Whilst data on how many of those disruptions were alcohol-related does not exist, it is believed to be a likely factor in many of those recorded.