AN AIRLINE has banned a passenger for life after his disruptive behaviour led to a flight from Leeds-Bradford Airport to Alicante being diverted to Toulouse.

Half-term holidaymakers on today's 7.20am Jet2 flight to Spain had to endure an unscheduled stop in France after concerns were raised about the behaviour of a man who was reportedly with a stag party.

The LS271 flight was forced to land after the man refused to stop drinking vodka that had been smuggled onboard.

The man, named by Jet2.com as Grant Marshall, was asked by cabin crew a number of times to stop drinking it and to stop using intimidating language and threatening behaviour, but he ignored them and carried on.

The pilot diverted the flight because of his disruptive behaviour and once at Toulouse, Mr Marshall was handed over to police, said Managing Director of Jet2.com, Phil Ward.

The incident prompted the airline to immediately announce a life-ban on its flights for Mr Marshall and to pledge it would take a harsh-line against anyone behaving disruptively or inappropriately on its flights, following a rise in such incidents industry-wide.

Mr Ward said: "Jet2.com is a holiday airline. We will not allow our customers’ holidays to be upset by an individual's obnoxious behaviour. Passenger welfare is and always will be our number one priority which is why we have brought in these measures to take action against anyone who causes offence and disruption to our passengers and crew. We will not hesitate to prosecute individuals where necessary.”

And he added: "As well as Grant Marshall delaying holidaymakers, he could now be facing prosecution for his behaviour and could be found liable for the costs of the divert, which will run into thousands of pounds.”

The zero tolerance policy, put in place as of yesterday, covers all of Jets-com's flights to more than 55 destinations across Europe to reassure passengers that their welfare is the airline’s key priority.

Racism, threatening conduct towards passengers and staff and excessive consumption of alcohol will all be classed as inappropriate behaviour and could result in a flight being diverted, police prosecution, the individual at fault not being allowed to board a flight or receiving a flight ban for life, said Mr Ward.

He said a number of passengers who had been on Flight LS271 had already contacted the airline to thank and congratulate it on taking the strict stance.

One of those passengers said: "The Captain said Jet2 had ordered him to divert as it was now enforcing zero tolerance."