They put a sticker on the plane, Ryanair didn’t pay their debt, and the plane was still allowed to depart.
Different rules for the rich I guess.
this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2026
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The court can sell the Boeing 737 at public auction if the debt is not paid by a deadline.
Missing deadlines is how they got here in the first place. How many warnings do you or I get when dodging a court judgement?
More than you probably think.
Source: I watch postings of courts on Youtube, and if there's one thing I've learned (that I already knew, mind), it's that justice moves very very slowly and gives many more chances than you'd think in many cases (while zero chances in others).
What would the alternative course of action be? Seize the plane immediately, kick off all the passengers, and screw over a whole new set of people? The sticker may seem toothless, but it's the court going through the (predefined) process. As long as they continue that process, there's no reason to be upset at the court, yet. (If they don't follow through, then perhaps it's pitchfork time.)
Ryanair screwed those people.
Suggesting otherwise is siding with the abuser.
The logic you're applying here would have all accounts frozen at a bank when a single customer disputes a charge, all parcels held when a carrier misdelivers a single item, grocery stores unable to sell food when one customer should have been refunded.
No one is siding with Ryanair here. But laws can be enforced and justice can be carried out, without disrupting the lives of everyone else. There were likely on the order 200 people on that flight who would have been caught in the crossfire of a dispute they have no part in.
Sherifs have seized bank office property to enforce judgements. It’s extremely effective at getting business to pay court judgements they have dodged for years.
If we do this more often companies would take court judgements seriously. Only takes one disrupted flight to fix an unjust legal system.
Seizing "office property" isn't going to disrupt customers in the same way as seizing a plane, and again, no one is saying don't seize a plane, or don't punish Ryanair - just don't seize a plane with passengers already on it (at least without going through a process that includes a threat and a deadline, so the customers can, theoretically, be spared).
If only the same logic applied to the wife and kids when law enforcement comes knocking down the door.
It would be to seize assets equal in value to the adjudicated amount. It's pretty easy to just seize a jet that is being repaired or something else. But they don't do that.
Maybe because the case gets more media attention when you put seizure stickers on a plane in front of 200 passengers compared to actually seizing an actual plane in the hangar far from public eyes.
This is not about actually seizing a plane (it wouldn't be proportional to the sun Ryanair has to pay), this is about showing Ryanair that the court doesn't give a shit and proceeds by the protocol as intended...
Seriously: Refusing to pay a sum as low as $ 890 after being ordered by court is such a petty move that I think it's hilarious that the court reacts like "You don't want to pay? Well in that case we seize some random plane if you continue to refuse... Your choice Ryanair..."
It's about sending a message like putting a horse head on someone's doorstep.
Sure, that's cool and all, but the message is not "we will seize this" it's "we will temporarily disrupt service for one plane of people who had nothing to do with the suit, costing the company a bit of money for inconvenience and nothing else."
More than one. Source: went through some shit.
It's the same for normal people.
At least in Germany, about the same amount of warnings. When a debt collector shows up for example they don't immediately seize everything, they do an assessment first and tell you what will be seized if you don't pay up.
When you are rich or a large enough corporations missing deadlines is a okay.
She could keep it in her backyard.
They can still sell the airplane if Ryanair doesn't pay. Did you want them to screw the innocent passengers for that flight too?
If Ryanair is evil/incompetent enough to screw a whole plane load of passengers over a couple hundred euro, how is that the fault of the original victim?
You want to deny them justice because RyanAir is using other passengers as a shield?
The court can sell the Boeing 737 at public auction if the debt is not paid by a deadline.
Unless Ryanair steals the airplane, the debt will be paid. And if they steal the airplane, then they will have a problem much bigger than €890.
This was a reasonable and proportional solution to the problem.
Ryanair operates in numerous countries. What's stopping them from just moving the plane to "coincidentally" operate only in countries that won't bother with seizing the plane?
So Ryanair would just need to quit the entirety of the European market, move their entire fleet in record time without anyone noticing, and hope Jordanian and Moroccan courts don't decide to recognize the Austrian court order? For €890.
It's a funny thought exercise, but in practice they are going to pay the compensation.
Am I the only one who has never experienced an issue with RyanAir? Maybe the issues are more pronounced in other countries with laxer regulations and consumer protection laws, but I know what I'm in for when I book RA. I am not the typical traveler, I travel to strange places and alone and very light and (no I don't smuggle drugs except accidentally a few times) have a high pain tolerance, but never had a late flight or got shit that wasn't printed on the box.
Am I the only one who has never experienced an issue with RyanAir?
No I'm sure there's plenty of people who have never been on one of their flights
A lot of factors, including that it would mess up positioning for all their fleet and would cost them far more than the fine would.
Fuck Ryanair. It is hard to overstate the amount of Schadenfreude I felt reading this article.
Throw the CEO in jail and fine them a significant percent of their raw income
In 2024 he made $5 million. The fine wouldn't even need to be a significant percentage. 1% fine awarded to her would be a $50,000 payout. Fucking disgusting.
you can't do that to a CEO. you can't just unilaterally apply the law to them!
I mean, they're rich! think of all the money they could generate for shareholders!
Neat, Ryanair is nearly as bad as Lufthansa. Ryanair needs to up their game to reach Lufthansa's impressive blanket rejection rate of 76%!
Joking aside, the financial damage of a cheap Ryanair flight is orders of magnitude less. Imagine being defrauded for $1400 when the airline cancels your flight and ghosts you.
It's no surprise that websites like luftscamsa.com exist!
I've flown Ryanair twice. That's enough for me. Now, within Europe I fly other carriers, even flag carriers. Comparing flights online often gives you options which are in the same price range. My favorite low cost is Iberia Express, good prices and a really nice experience. for 15€ more I can choose exit seats, which have good leg room, which is usually the bad thing with low costs.
Iberia Express, EasyJet, Air Europa, Vueling, are usually my go to.
I've been flying since the 70's. All airlines have gone downhill in experience, but Ryanair seems to have customer misery in their mission statement.
Having to pay the price of a Big Mac menu to avoid Ryanair seems like a great deal to me.
Rare consumer W
Nice job from the unnamed woman.