Irish low-cost airline Ryanair slammed for lending deaf ears to racially abusive man

Irish low-cost airline Ryanair has been slammed after failing to remove a racist passenger onboard a flight from Barcelona to London.

According to a video shot by a fellow passenger, the incident took place onboard the flight on Friday after a woman was unable to move out from her seat quickly to let the man enter and sit in his window seat, reports Xinhua news agency.

Then the man shouted at the woman while her daughter told him her mother was disabled.

Although a fellow passenger and a flight attendant tried to intervene and calm the man down, he replied that he would carry on as far as possible with "this ugly black bastard".

A number of passengers on the flight called for the man to be removed from the plane, but he was still allowed to stay on it, which sparked public outcry after the video was viewed for more than 4 million times on Facebook.

David Lawrence, the passenger who recorded the widespread video, told BBC on Sunday that he was "shocked" that Ryanair "allowed something like this just to go unchecked".

"We operate strict guidelines for disruptive passengers and we will not tolerate unruly behaviour like this," Ryanair replied. "We will be taking this matter further and disruptive or abusive behaviour like this will result in passengers being banned from travel."

The airline tweeted on Sunday that it has reported the incident to the police.

Founded in 1984, Ryanair is one of the largest airlines in Europe, serving 37 countries in Europe, Africa, and Asia.