A court-appointed bailiff briefly immobilised a Boeing 737 operated by Ryanair in Linz, Austria, affixing a judicial attachment notice over an unresolved $1,182 passenger compensation claim.
Although the airline disputed that the aircraft had been formally seized, the outstanding debt was settled within three days of the incident.
According viewfromthewing.com, Linz Airport said it had been told there was a pending court claim against Ryanair, that a bailiff had been instructed by the district court, and airport staff escorted the bailiff to the aircraft so he could carry out the official act.
Back in July, 2024, a woman traveling from Linz to Palma de Mallorca with two other passengers was delayed about 13 hours. They wound up buying a new ticket, and getting a refund from Ryanair – but Ryanair refused to pay EU261 compensation.
- The claim was for €355 total including €250 in statutory compensation
- Interest, legal costs, and enforcement costs brought that to €892.87 (~ US$1,182)
- A court bailiff (Exekutor / Gerichtsvollzieher) was accompanied by the passenger’s lawyer, acting under court authority to seize the aircraft against the funds that were due.
The plane was Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS registration EI-EXE which operated flight FR1695 from London Stansted to Linz and then FR1694 from Linz to London Stansted on March 9. The flight was 44 minutes late arriving at Linz and left 79 minutes late, so at least half an hour is attributable to the bailiff.
The bailiff first tried to collect on the spot from the crew or pilot, but Ryanair flights are cashless. The pilot offered to pay by card, but the bailiff would only accept cash. So they attached a “cuckoo sticker” indicating seizure (in Austria the formal term is Pfändungsmarke, and “Kuckuck” is the colloquial equivalent). So the plane was formally seized, even if it was not physically immobilized or taken out of service.
The sticker marked a judicial attachment and the court could proceed further if the debt remained unpaid. So the plane really could have been auctioned off it Ryanair did not pay.
During the pandemic, Delta Air Lines check-in at London Heathrow was shut down prior to a flight to New York JFK. Bailiffs sought to collect a $3,400 refund that had been owed to a passenger for a couple of years. The customer had obtained a court writ, and the agents went to seize the airline’s property to satisfy the debt. They can seize planes.
Once agents were inside the terminal, check-in staff called their manager, and they had a dispute over whether the check-in desks could be closed. As one agent put it, “it may seem slightly disproportionate when you’re perhaps using a 50 million pound asset for a debt that’s maybe only a few thousand pounds.”
They closed check-in, passengers were turning up and the airline’s queues got longer. So a Delta manager pulled out their personal credit card.
I’ve written about passengers hiring private bailiffs to collect on unpaid flight delay compensation, taking credit cards from airline staff in their offices to avoid seizure and sale of the office furniture.
Bailiffs once showed up at London Luton airport, delaying a Wizz Air flight to collect a refund that was owed to a customer. It caused a flight delay, and then Wizz Air owed EU261 compensation to all of the passengers on board!
Former Slovenian Star Alliance member Adria Airways once even cancelled a flight to Vienna because they expected bailiffs to seize their aircraft over an unpaid 250 euro claim. Weird, because everyone on the cancelled flight would have been owed compensation, too.
U.S. consumers often gaze longingly at European consumer protection laws. In principle they guarantee more to the customer (generating higher costs to airlines, which affect customers too). However, in practice airlines just don’t pay and there’s little enforcement. So cheers to the customers who take matters into their own hands and go get a court order and a bailiff!
