Man Rained Racist Abuses on Black Woman Onboard Flight. She Was the One Made to Switch Seats

London: Ryanair has faced criticism after a video posted online apparently showed the airline's crew failing to take action to remove a passenger who launched a racist tirade against a fellow traveller.

The video, uploaded to social media by Briton David Lawrence, showed a man hurling racist insults at an elderly black woman sitting in the same row and demanding she move seats onboard a flight from Barcelona to London on Friday.

It wasn't clear what had prompted the quarrel. Lawrence told ITV the man abused both the woman and her daughter, but flight attendants failed to eject him from the flight.

Instead of throwing the man yelling racist slurs at her, the flight attendants eventually asked the visibly fed up elderly woman to move away from her seat and sit next to her daughter.

There were no apparent repercussions for the male passenger, who effectively enjoyed more leg room in a row to himself despite his rogue behaviour.

The budget airline tweeted Sunday that it had seen the footage and reported the incident to police. It didn't provide further comment.