Cause a Scene on Ryanair? That’ll Be a £500 Fine—Plus Possible Criminal Charges

Ryanair has announced that disruptive passengers who need to be removed from flights will face a minimum charge of £500 ($680). The Irish airline is known for its low base fares combined with high additional fees.

For instance, passengers are charged €55 ($63.71) if they check in at the airport instead of online and up to €160 ($185.38) for correcting a misspelled name on their booking.

This latest fee is Ryanair’s heftiest yet, although if you stay in your seat and obey the flight crew, you’re extremely unlikely to incur it.

Who’s Getting Fined?

Ryanair is reserving the £500 fine for passengers it has to offload from the aircraft due to poor behavior. That’s in addition to civil damages and potential criminal charges for disrupting flights and endangering passengers and crew.

A spokesperson for the airline said: “It is unacceptable that passengers are made [to] suffer unnecessary disruption because of one unruly passenger behavior.

Photo: Ryanair, Boeing 737-800. Courtesy of Portuguese Gravity / Unsplash

“To help ensure that our passengers and crew travel in a comfortable and stress-free environment, without the unnecessary disruption caused by a tiny number of unruly passengers, we have introduced a £500 fine, which will be issued to any passengers offloaded from aircraft as a result of their misconduct.”

Bad Behavior Normality

Ryanair has long been outspoken about the impact of unmanageable passengers. With its short-haul flights to sunny party hot spots and bachelor/bachelorette destinations, it sees more than its fair share of rowdy, often drunken travelers.

In January, CEO Michael O’Leary revealed that the airline has to divert two to three flights per week due to bad behavior.

Photo: Ryanair, Boeing 737-800. Courtesy of Marty Sakin / Unsplash

To cut down on disruptions, O’Leary has called for travelers to be limited to two alcoholic drinks at the airport. Ryanair and other airlines already restrict sales of alcohol to passengers aboard their planes to prevent intoxication.

The £500 fine is the airline’s latest attempt to encourage better conduct aboard its flights.

Ryanair said: “While these are isolated events that happen across all airlines, disruptive behavior in such a confined shared space is unacceptable, and we hope that our proactive approach will act as a deterrent to eliminate this unacceptable behavior onboard our aircraft.”

Lawsuits and Criminal Charges

Disrupt a Ryanair or any other commercial flight, and a £500 fine might be the least of your worries.

Airlines can also pursue legal claims against passengers whose poor behavior causes flight delays or diversions.

That’s exactly what Ryanair recently did against an anonymous traveler whose behavior forced an April 2024 flight from Dublin (DUB) to Lanzarote (ACE) to divert to Porto (OPO). The £12,500 in damages Ryanair seeks to cover the cost of other passengers’ overnight accommodation in Portugal and other expenses associated with the diversion.

Photo: British police. Courtesy of John Cameron / Unsplash

Unruly travelers can also be prosecuted for forcing flights to divert. In 2020, a passenger who disrupted a Ryanair flight to Athens (ATH) by refusing to follow crew instructions was prosecuted in a Greek court and received a five-month suspended sentence and a €400 ($463) fine.

In the United States, travelers who disrupt flights can face federal charges, with potential prison sentences of up to 20 years and fines of up to $37,000 from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Raucous passengers can also earn bans from airlines and be added to TSA or government watchlists.

Airlines have seen a spike in disorderly behavior from travelers since the pandemic. Many incidents were sparked by travelers resisting mask requirements, but poor behavior has continued as COVID precautions were dropped. In 2024, the FAA recorded 2,102 disruptive passenger events, 80% more than in 2019.