Ryanair's changed policy on minors leave children's travel plans up in the air

Irish Times

22-07-2025

This time last year a 14-year-old travelling with a sibling or friend over the age of 16 – maybe as part of a language exchange programme – was welcomed on board
Ryanair
flights without any difficulties.
This year, however, they might find themselves being escorted off the plane as a result of a change in the company's policies that may have gone undetected by many families who are hoping to send their little ones away in the weeks ahead.
It certainly went undetected by two readers who contacted this page within days of each other earlier this month.
'I wonder if you could advise on a consumer issue,' begins the mail from Andrea.
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'Prior to June of this year, a passenger aged under 16 was permitted to travel with another passenger aged 16 or older with Ryanair. It appears this policy changed in or around June this year and now under 16s must be accompanied by someone aged over 18,' she says.
Before we continue and out of fear of enraging Ryanair early on, we should point out that Andrea is incorrect to say this change happened 'in or around June this year', and we will elaborate on that presently.
For now, back to Andrea's story.
'This past Saturday, we were due to receive three students from Valencia, flying together on Ryanair, two aged 17 and one aged 15. But when they went to check in, they were advised that the 15-year-old was not allowed to travel, even though at the time of booking the tickets, Ryanair's policy would have allowed this. How is this allowed to happen? Surely Ryanair should have been obligated to inform affected passengers of this policy change in advance of their travel dates and offer refunds? It seems outrageous that they were not informed of the policy change,' she says.
She points out that the 15-year-old's parents were 'forced to purchase an Aer Lingus flight from Alicante so that she could get to Dublin to start her course. Do they have grounds for any recourse from Ryanair here? It must be some kind of breach of contract. Or would it be a case of trying to claim on their travel insurance? It is very difficult to find information on the policy change on Ryanair's website- all that seems to be available now is their new policy, so it is very difficult to find out even when the policy changed.'
At around the same time we also heard from Michele.
'I am mum of four children ranging from 18 to seven,' she begins.
'For the past three years I have sent my older children to a group in Spain called Pueblo Ingles. They fly to Madrid get picked up and stay overnight, then bus it out to Salamanca to teach English to Spanish children. It's volunteer-based.
She says that the first year she sent her 16-year-old son and her 14-year-old daughter and two friends aged 15 and 13 and they all flew without issue.
The second year she sent her son – who was then 17 – with her daughter and her daughter's friend, both of whom were under 16 at the time of the flight.
'This year I sent my daughter who is now 17 and her sister who is 13. It was to be the older girl's last year and the younger girl's first,' she explains.
'I used my Ryanair app when I booked the flights and nothing was said regarding age. I booked their 20kg baggage, I booked the seat allocation there and back. I checked them in online, nothing was ever said about the age of the travellers,' she writes.
She left her home in Waterford at 8pm on a Wednesday night, stayed with family close to the airport, woke at 5am and drove to Dublin Airport, terminal 1, parked the car and checked and tagged the bag.
'I walked the girls to security, said goodbye and left and drove back towards Waterford. My 17-year-old daughter called me at 7.30am. Ryanair wouldn't let her board with the 13-year-old. In fact, they said she could board but leave the 13-year-old there to call her mother,' Michele writes.
'They did this in front of the other passengers. They shamed and embarrassed my children as if they had done wrong. They didn't offer them assistance or walk them down to get their bags, they just said 'I've unboarded you now and your bag has been removed from the plane'. My children had to walk down crying and ask an airport worker where their bag might be,' she says.
'I went back to Dublin Airport through M50 toll back to the car park to collect two traumatised girls. I was given an email to complain to but it bounced back saying it didn't exist. Then I called their complaints number and spoke to a human that was close to a robot. He just kept repeating their policies and said I wouldn't get any refund because it was my own fault, I could have linked the girls flight to another adult on the plane, that adult being a mystery stranger I hadn't met yet. I always fly Ryanair and have never complained about them because cheap is cheap, you know what you're getting when you book with them. But the fact that I had done this two years previous with no problem and the fact that they humiliated my kids so publicly, I'm angry.'
We got in touch with Ryanair and will publish the response that came from its PR department in full.
'There hasn't been a 'recent' policy change ('June this year') as you wrongly claim,' it begins.
Pricewatch made no such claim, we were quoting our reader and seeking information, but that is by the by.
'We changed our 'minors' travel policy in September last year. Prior to that change we allowed under 16's to travel with an over 16 'adult'. However, in a number of EU countries (notably Spain, Poland, Greece and Germany) we were notified that this is not allowed, as they require an U16 'minor' to be accompanied by an 'adult', who must be over 18, not over 16. They do not accept over 16's as an adult, whereas Ryanair does.
'To avoid any confusion, and the risk of such minors being detained by immigration in these countries, we changed our policy to bring it into line with the requirements of these countries, that an U16 minor must – since Sept 2024 – be accompanied by an adult over 18 years of age.'
The statement points out that the first booking we highlighted was made in March 2025 'over six months after this policy change' while the second booking 'was made in May 2025, more than eight months after this policy change. This 'minor' travel policy was clearly set out on our website at the time of both of these bookings.'
'We will not take any risks when it comes to accompanied minors travelling with adults, and we must ensure that we comply with the most stringent standards governing travel for minors, to ensure we avoid such minors getting stuck, or worse still, denied entry at immigration points at EU airports.'
So, there you have it. There has been a policy change – albeit in September 2024 and not June 2025. We can't possibly quibble with the reasoning Ryanair has outlined for the changes, although readers might question how it has been advertised and managed.
Unlike Ryanair, we understand that not everyone who makes a booking or pays for a service reads the terms and conditions in detail before clicking the buy now button. And we understand that people are even less likely to read those terms and conditions in detail if they are using a service or booking flights in a fashion similar to how they have done it in the fairly recent past.
For our part we shall treat this as a public service announcement and one anyone planning to book a flight for a 16- or 17-year-old and someone under that age will do well to heed.