Eight passengers have been banned for life for smoking on Ryanair flights, the airline revealed yesterday.

Eight passengers have been banned for life for smoking on Ryanair flights, the airline revealed yesterday.

The low-cost carrier said that smoking on its services was strictly prohibited and that even those who extinguished their cigarettes when requested to do so were prevented from flying with the company for the rest of their lives. The airline said that its ban on smoking was made clear during the safety demonstration before take-off and no excuse was accepted.

All eight passengers, who committed the offence on separate flights during the past 12 months, were reported to the police, the airline said.

Ryanair's head of communications Paul Fitzsimmons said: "Smoking during a flight compromises the safety of everyone on board an aircraft."

A spokesman for British Airways said that smoking was strictly prohibited on its flights and that those who ignored the ban could be prosecuted under safety legislation. But no one had received life-time bans.

Meanwhile, a golfer who was among a party banned from a flight after someone allegedly urinated into a seat pocket was considering legal action against the budget carrier easyJet.

The airline said one of the 15 golfers was responsible for the "repulsive" act during the flight from Bristol to Portugal last Friday afternoon. When the group checked into Faro airport on Monday evening they were told they could not make the return flight with easyJet.

Robert Bennett, 48, from Abergavenny, south Wales, denied the claims and said he was considering legal action to recover the cost of his return flight.