Jet2.com has issued a 42-year-old female passenger from Sunderland with an invoice for £6,800 for costs incurred after it was forced to divert a New Year’s Day flight because of her aggressive and abusive behaviour onboard.
The leisure airline diverted flight LS518, which was en route from Tenerife to Newcastle, to Shannon Airport on Friday evening after the passenger was verbally abusive to its crew and became more disruptive as the flight progressed. To protect the safety of everyone onboard she was offloaded and handed over to the local police. Passengers continued to Newcastle following a two-hour delay.
In addition to the £6,800 invoice, the woman has also been given a lifetime ban by Jet2.com and the airline is assisting the Gardai by providing all necessary crew reports in order for the police file to be submitted with the Director of Prosecutions.
Phil Ward, Managing Director, Jet2.com, said: “The safety and welfare of our customers and staff is always our number one priority. With our ‘Onboard Together’ initiative we openly vowed to take every possible action to stamp out antisocial behaviour on our flights and that is exactly what we are doing.
“Passengers were inconvenienced on New Year’s Day because this woman’s unacceptable behaviour towards our crew caused a substantial delay. We will therefore be pursuing the bill for the cost and we will do everything we can to assist the Irish authorities in working towards a potential prosecution.”
