Low-cost airline Jetstar Airways has caused a stir after denying an 13-year-old child a flight while allowing her XNUMX-year-old sister to stay on board. The two were unaccompanied.

According to local media reports, the incident happened back in October 2022. The two wanted to fly from Sydney to the Gold Coast. Actually, the father should have accompanied the two children, but he was unable to do so at short notice. The mother had contacted Qantas, which sold the ticket, and had the airline confirm that the two could travel unaccompanied. The Jetstar parent company would have explained to her in no uncertain terms that there would be no problems.

Boarding was still quite normal and the two children took their seats. But then the eleven-year-old was asked by Jetstar employees to leave the plane immediately. His sister, however, had to stay on board. The reason: The minimum age to be allowed to fly unaccompanied would be undercut and the sister is too young to be allowed to act as an accompanying person. However, the young lady herself has reached the minimum age to be allowed to fly alone.

The incident caused a stir because the two children were separated and the parents did everything in advance to clarify the situation with the airline. Apparently they were misinformed as Qantas and Jetstar have different policies regarding the carriage of unaccompanied minors.

In an official statement, the low-cost airline said: "We sincerely apologize to Ms. G. and her family for the extremely embarrassing situation. While we are happy to welcome young passengers on board our flights, Jetstar does not offer unaccompanied minor service and young passengers must meet certain requirements to travel independently with us. A secondary school-age passenger may travel independently, but must be at least 15 years of age to accompany a child under secondary school age.”

Although Jetstar promised that the ticket costs for the boy would be refunded immediately, the next "oops" happened, because according to local media reports the carrier only paid back after several editors contacted the carrier's press office. Irrespective of the regulations published on the website for the carriage of unaccompanied minors, a decisive explanation was not given: Why was the information given to the family obviously completely wrong? The fact that the boy's ticket was refunded shows that Jetstar and Qantas made a mistake here. This would not have been necessary if the fault had rested solely with the parents.

Also, no one said anything about why not already at check-in, but at the latest when boarding it was determined that the two were not allowed to travel like this. As mentioned in the article: The eleven-year-old was only asked to get off the plane on the plane.