A plane belonging to low-cost airline Ryanair was seized on 9 March due to non-payment of compensation to a passenger, as confirmed on Wednesday to EFE by the airport where the incident took place, and ratified by the judicial protocol published by an Austrian newspaper.
‘There was a corresponding court order. We took the bailiff to the aircraft. There, he carried out his official duties and, as mentioned, placed the seizure seal (on the aircraft). The aircraft then took off for London as scheduled,’ Ingo Hagedorn, head of communications at Linz Airport, some 180 kilometres from Vienna, told EFE.
The court in the town of Traun, near Linz, issued a protocol certifying that ‘on 9 March 2026, the judicial seizure of one Ryanair passenger aircraft, registration EI-EXE, model Boeing 737-8AS, was carried out,’ according to the Oberösterreichischen Nachrichten newspaper, the most widely read in the Upper Austria region, of which Linz is the capital.
The newspaper reports that Ryanair has the option of paying the €890 it owes: €355 in compensation plus interest and costs associated with the proceedings. If the company does not pay, the aircraft could even be auctioned off. When asked by EFE whether it plans to settle the debt, Ryanair simply replied that none of its aircraft have been seized.
‘Any information to the contrary would be objectively incorrect,’ it said, without further explanation.
The seizure of the aircraft originated from a claim filed by a woman who was due to travel to Palma in July 2024 with two companions and who, due to a delay of more than ten hours, sought an alternative flight that she paid for out of her own pocket.
Ryanair reimbursed the price of the original ticket, but not the €250 compensation for such cases, nor the compensation due to passengers for this type of delay, nor the additional €105 cost of the alternative ticket.
A bailiff who appeared at Linz airport even tried to collect the sum from the pilot of the aircraft, but the crew did not have any cash, as payments on board are made by card only. As a result, the bailiff proceeded to formally seize the aircraft, which has not been immobilised for the time being.