Ryanair apologises after telling Edinburgh-bound passenger Scotland isn't a country

Piotr Dziedzic, who runs a restaurant in Kelso, was preparing to return to Edinburgh from Lisbon.

The family have Polish passports, but have residency status in Scotland, having lived here since 2005.

The problems happened as his youngest daughter, 13-year-old Amelia, was forced to take a Covid test in the airport in order to get on the flight, which contravened rules at the time (January 10). They were told because they were Polish, UK rules do not apply.

Ryanair are offering compensation to a family, who missed their flight after one member was forced to take a Covid test in the airport in order to get on the flight, which went against Scottish rules at the time

The family were further held back, as his older daugher, 23-year-old Karolina, was interrogated by staff, who asked her who the Queen of the UK was and told her Scotland was not a country (even though the flight was to Edinburgh).

Piotr said: “Amelia was in fact born in Scotland therefore we do have to follow Scottish guidelines.

"Which other country’s rules could we possibly follow when entering our home in Scotland?

Piotr Dziedzic with his daughter Karolina, who was told by Ryanair staff that Scotland was not a country.

"My older daughter tried to present the above information which clearly states children under 18 in Scotland do not have to do a test before arrival but only a day two test, which we had proof of booking.

"After receiving this information, [the staff member] came back with printed rules for England (which are, of course, different to Scotland) and tried to argue that Scotland is not a country and we should follow English rules.

"Even a Google search to prove that Scotland is in fact a country was dismissed by them; it is incomprehensible we had to even argue this. Suddenly the initial problem that we are Polish wasn’t the cause of concern, but rather that we were following Scottish guidelines as opposed to English. Pointless excuse after excuse, as if looking to create a problem out of nothing.”

Amelia had her test, at the family’s expense, but by then it was too late to catch the flight.

Piotr with 13-year-old Amelia, who was wrongly forced to take a Covid test in the Lisbon airport.

Piotr said: “We had to pay £550.96 to get the next flight to Birmingham, and then travel 560 miles (an extra large expense) to get to Edinburgh.”

In a letter to Ryanair, Piotr accused the airline of “complete racism and lack of professional behaviour”.

The Southern contacted Ryanair this week and received the following response.

"Ryanair does not tolerate any form of racial prejudice; all of our customers are treated equally.

"Having addressed this matter with our Lisbon Airport handling agents, it has been verified that this passenger was incorrectly refused boarding due to the handling agents’ misinterpretation of the travel requirements, believing that a pre-departure Covid-19 test was required for Mr. Dziedzic’s daughter to board this flight.

“We sincerely apologise to these passengers, and our Lisbon Airport handling agents have agreed in this case to compensate Mr Dziedzic.”

However, this was news to Piotr when we contacted him yesterday.

He said: “I emailed them yesterday and was told I would have to wait another 10 days.

"It will be interesting to see what sort of compensation we receive.”

This afternoon, the Ryanair spokesperson said: “A member of our Customer Service Department has been in contact with Mr Dziedzic to assist him with his compensation claim.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by Coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.