Ryanair this afternoon announced it had banned eight passengers for life from flying with the airline over the past 12 months "for compromising passenger and crew safety by smoking on board".
The airline would not reveal the identity or nationality of any of the passengers or the routes they were flying on.
Ryanair's communications head, Mr Paul Fitzsimmons, said passenger and crew safety was the airline's number one priority. "Smoking during a flight compromises the safety of everyone on board an aircraft and is strictly prohibited," he said
"There remains a tiny minority of passengers who stupidly and recklessly persist in endangering the safety of others by smoking on board," he continued. "Ryanair will immediately ban anyone found smoking on board any Ryanair flight and pass the offenders over to the police for prosecution."