This Airline Will Hand Out $675 Fines to Unruly Passengers

A major European airline announced this week that passengers who are removed from flights for “unruly behavior” will now face an additional fine in an effort to crack down on what it calls “unacceptable behavior.”

On Thursday, June 12, Irish airline Ryanair revealed that it is introducing a £500 fine — more than $675 — to any passenger “whose unruly behavior results in them being offloaded from the aircraft.”

The newly implemented fines from Ryanair, which calls itself Europe’s “most punctual airline,” take on an “industry-wide issue affecting all airlines,” the airline said in its release.

The “minimum” fine comes as the airline vows to “continue to pursue disruptive passengers for civil damages.”

“It is unacceptable that passengers are made [to] suffer unnecessary disruption because of one unruly passenger’s behavior,” a spokesperson for the airline said in a statement. “To help ensure that our passengers and crew travel in a comfortable and stress-free environment, without 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.”

“While these are isolated events which 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,” the spokesperson added.

PEOPLE reached out to Ryanair for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

Michael O’Leary, Ryanair’s CEO, previously argued that passengers should be limited to two drinks at airports, telling the Daily Telegraph in August that authorities “don’t allow people to drink-drive, yet we keep putting them up in aircraft at 33,000ft.”

“In the old days, people who drank too much would eventually fall over or fall asleep. But now those passengers are also on tablets and powder,” he said. “It’s the mix. You get much more aggressive behavior that becomes very difficult to manage.”

Back in January, the airline took legal action against a passenger in Ireland, seeking £12,500 — or roughly $17,000 — claiming that they disrupted a flight to the Canary Islands, per The Guardian.

The 160 passengers on board had to “face unnecessary disruption as well as [lose] a full day of their holiday,” the company said at the time, according to the outlet.

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Over in the U.S., unruly passenger incidents reported to the Federal Aviation Administration peaked in 2021, when 5,973 were reported. A total of 2,102 were reported in 2024, with 699 accounted for so far in 2025. From 2021 to 2023, the FAA levied a total of $20.9 million in fines against “unruly” passengers.

Unruly passengers can face a felony conviction if referred to the FBI, fines of up to $37,000 per violation and be placed on an airline’s internal no-fly list.

“Former FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker reiterates that the FAA has zero tolerance for unruly passenger behavior. Dangerous passengers put everyone at risk,” the agency shared in a statement on its website. “Threatening or violent behavior can distract and disrupt crew members from their primary responsibility — to ensure the safety of all passengers.”