The poor boy had to sit on an aisle seat (Picture: Mirrorpix)
A six-year-old boy was left in floods of tears after an IT glitch meant someone else was sat in his window seat on board a Ryanair flight.
Ryan Bandli was already a nervous flyer but he ended up inconsolable at being denied his spot on the journey from Budapest to Manchester in August.
When his family boarded the flight they found a woman in his place who refused to budge, saying she had been assigned the exact same seat number.
The youngster was forced to sit on an aisle seat away from his mum Adi because the flight was fully booked.
She says sitting by the window helps calm Ryan’s nerves.
The mum paid an additional fee when booking on the budget airline’s Polish subsidiary, Buzz to reserve the seat especially.
Adi told The Mirror: ‘Ryan was really upset and anxious and he cried.
‘He didn’t understand how this could happen. We sat separately and it was really stressful.
‘My poor child was crying. People gave him sweets and were so kind.’
Ryan is already a nervous flyer and matters were made worse when he couldn’t sit beside the window (Picture: Mirrorpix)
Passengers fed Ryan sweets to cheer him up (Credits: Mirrorpix)
The mum claims she is still waiting for an explanation and compensation from Ryanair.
But Ryanair has said the seat was not sold twice, but that the issue came about because of a ‘computer glitch’, and has now refunded Adi the reservation cost.
The airline recently wrote to Adi and stated the incident happened because they’d booked an emergency exit row, and Ryan was too young to safely sit in the allotted seat.
But Mrs Bandli insisted they definitely were not placed in an emergency exit row.
Referring to the company’s Polish subsidiary, a spokesperson for Ryanair said: ‘Buzz regrets the inconvenience caused to Ms Bandli and her son and a member of our customer services team will contact them directly.’
Metro.co.uk has approached Ryanair for further comment.
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The 6-year-old likes sitting by the window because it calms his nerves.
