A Northern Irish family has claimed they were denied boarding on a Ryanair flight from London to Dublin and incorrectly told they required visas to enter Ireland.
Christina Finn, her husband Cameron and their five-month-old son were attempting to return home after attending a CBeebies event in London on Friday.
The couple, who had travelled to London from Belfast using driving licences as identification, were refused boarding at Stansted Airport.
According to Finn, staff informed her that as a UK citizen she would need a visa to travel to Ireland because it is in the EU, despite the existence of the Common Travel Area between the UK and Ireland.
Ryanair flights on the runway at Dublin Airport
PA
The incident occurred when the family were returning from their trip to the capital on June 5.
They had flown from Belfast to London that morning without issue, using their driving licences as identification.
Problems arose when the couple were unable to check-in online for their return flight. Upon arriving at the airport, they were asked to pay a £55 per passenger fee for checking in at the desk.
When staff requested to see their passports, it emerged that both had expired. "My husband has an Irish passport and I have a British one which have both recently expired," she told Belfast Live.
"With the baby due, we were waiting until he was born to renew them so that we could just do it at the same time."
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The couple were stopped at the check-in desk
PAFinn explained that staff told her that whilst her husband could board with his expired Irish passport, she would be refused entry as a British passport holder.
"The staff informed me that as a UK citizen I would need a visa to travel to Ireland as it is in the EU and I tried to explain to them that that wouldn't apply due to the Common Travel Area," she said.
She told Belfast Live that when she explained they lived in Northern Ireland, the staff member "questioned how I had a British passport and couldn't seem to understand that it was a pretty common thing for people to fly to Dublin then travel on to Belfast."
Ryanair has since defended its decision, stating that the family were "correctly denied boarding" from the London Stansted to Dublin flight.
A Ryanair spokesman said: "Ryanair does not accept driving licenses as a valid travel document for travel between Ireland and the UK.
"Passengers must present a valid passport for travel, which these passengers did not."
The airline also claimed the passengers had become "aggressive towards the agents at the check-in desk" when asked to pay the airport check-in fee.
Ryanair emphasised that all passengers travelling between Ireland and the UK are required to carry valid passports, and that these requirements are "clearly set out on Ryanair.com."
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