Couple boarding Ryanair flight leave baby at check-in after refusing to pay for ticket

A couple abandoned their baby at an airport check-in while attempting to board a flight without a ticket for the child.

Two parents with Belgian passports were detained by police after leaving their baby at the check-in at the Ben-Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.

The family were due to board a Ryanair flight from Tel Aviv in Israel to Brussels in Belgium, but they didn’t have a ticket for their baby.

Instead of buying a ticket for the baby or leaving the airport altogether, they strolled to passport control and left their baby in the car seat.

Airport staff noticed what had happened and contacted the police, who immediately took the parents in for questioning.

The manager of the Ryanair desk said: “We’ve never seen anything like this. We couldn’t believe what we were seeing.”

According to the Israel Airports Authority, the couple arrived late to Terminal 1 and the check-in counter for their flight had closed.

They wanted to go through to deal with security and leave their baby on the conveyor belt in the area.

According to Ryanair, people travelling with a child can either pay around £25 for a lap seat or can buy a separate seat at a standard adult fare.

Footage shows shocked check-in workers moving a blanket off a baby car seat to see the very small baby inside.

The authorities said that a shift manager, which handles services at the airport, “took the couple back to the flight counters to take the baby and called the police and a security guard. The couple took the baby back.”

In October, a 62-year-old grandfather was arrested in Florida after it was discovered he had left a nearly two-year-old child in the back of a locked rental car at Daytona Airport.

And in 2019, a Saudia Arabian flight had to turn back to its departure point after a mother left her baby at the airport.