8

I'm flying in July 2024 from London to Dublin with Aer Lingus; I have an EU identity card. I took for granted there would be no issue but I just checked on

https://www.aerlingus.com/prepare/passports-and-visas/travel-to-from-britain/

which says that "To travel between Ireland and Britain with photo identification other than a passport, you must be a citizen of either country."

The little digital tool they provide on the same page says that in fact my passport is required (but would not be required to travel from France to Ireland, say). I think that digital form fetches information from TIMATIC, but it links to something called SHERPA.

I called Aer Lingus call centre who said that my ID card is fine, but when I mentioned what's on the website then the service agent confirmed that my passport is required, and suggested I check on IATA travelcentre website. I just did, and there it says that my EU ID card suffices (by the way, on the form which I filled in they also ask which airline I'm flying with!)! I am very confused.

By the way I must add that neither the Aer Lingus website nor the digital tool they provide for checking entry requirements, is very professional. For example, for travelling Dublin to London, neither mentions that EU ID card is enough for people with Settled Status under the EU Settlement Scheme (this information, by the way, does indeed appear on the travelcentre website). Also, that tool on the Aer Lingus website says that passport is required to travel UK to France, ridiculous!

UPDATE I'm starting to get answers which don't solve my original question, so let's rephrase it this way to make it more clear: if I'm denied boarding by Aer Lingus and I complain with an EU or UK aviation authority then am I entitled to compensation?

Improve this question
10
  • Ireland to France with an EU ID card is possible as both are in the EU. Ireland is not in Schengen which means that you might need to show it but, otherwise, it is just another EU country. The UK is no longer in the EU. The UK no longer accepts EU ID cards (1). How did you get into the UK without a passport? (1) It still accepts the Irish passport card but I have not tried it yet.
    – badjohn
    Commented Jul 21 at 16:43
  • The UK doesn't need departing passengers to hold valid passports. How I got into the UK is not the question, let's not add to the confusion. I am not Irish nor British.
    – user156032
    Commented Jul 21 at 16:50
  • Sorry, I was assuming a two way trip. As Nicolas say, this direction should be possible provided that the airline is happy. Airlines can be stricter than immigration.
    – badjohn
    Commented Jul 21 at 16:53
  • 1
    @badjohn Ryanair are "stricter" than immigration going Ireland -> UK, but that's because they think Home Office policy requires them to verify eligiblity to enter the UK on an ID card and will be fined if they don't, whereas Home Office has explicitly stated the direct opposite in published carrier communications. Which is why I only fly easyJet and Jet2.com into the UK as it's a common misconception among handling agents in general but those airlines will cover me if I'm stopped (which happened twice in the past 30 days alone)
    – Crazydre
    Commented Jul 21 at 17:37
  • @badjohn As for "How did you get into the UK without a passport?", that's perfectly possible - and legal - through the land border, though once ETA is rolled out to EU nationals it'll no longer be legal except for those ETA-exempt (such as Irish residents)
    – Crazydre
    Commented Jul 21 at 17:40

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
6

I think that page is just badly worded. Note that it doesn’t even mention national identity cards as such, so the requirement to be Irish or British is only for the much lesser forms of identification listed (student cards, bus cards!…), which are indeed valid for CTA citizens within the CTA, but not others.

On the other hand, they explicitly list EU national ID cards as legitimate forms of ID for flights between Northern Ireland and Great Britain…

The tool on that page actually links back to what they call an Irish government page (but is actually the Irish tourist board) which is quite clear on the fact that en EU ID card is perfectly fine.

Timatic is quite clear on the fact that an EU ID is fine as well (here in the case of a French citizen):

Passport required.

Passport Exemptions:

  • Nationals of France with a national ID card.

(…)

The IATA Travel Centre agrees.

Traveldoc agrees.

Their Conditions of Carriage do not include any requirements (on documents) other than having valid travel documents for the destination (and transit) countries.

Denying you boarding for a UK-Ireland flight just because you only have a EU national ID card and not a passport would not be legitimate and would thus be eligible for compensation.

Improve this answer
16
  • That's not a government page, but the tourism board website. And the part where it says "If you’re travelling direct to Northern Ireland from the EU or travelling on to Great Britain from Northern Ireland, you’ll need a passport" is completely pulled out of their backsides (the Home Office CTA Policy Team has directly refuted this in a PDF letter to me). Nonetheless it's correct about the Republic of Ireland
    – Crazydre
    Commented Jul 22 at 6:19
  • Besides that the page in ireland.com is badly worded, I don't see anywhere where they say that National ID is fine for travel UK to ROI; except perhaps on the Top Tip number two, which however is overwritten by the Top Tip number three.
    – user156032
    Commented Jul 22 at 8:19
  • However I agree the conditions of carriage don't mention anything except the travel document must be legally legitimate. But this would imply that if I show up with anything else which my destination country would accept, then they must let me board...
    – user156032
    Commented Jul 22 at 8:27
  • @Crazydre Sorry, got confused by their tool, the link to that page says "Government of Ireland", and I didn't check further. The tourist board of Ireland is a government organisation though :-) As for the travel to GB from NI bit, it's only if you have checked baggage that they need ID (for security purposes, not immigration).
    – jcaron
    Commented Jul 22 at 8:34
  • 1
    @user324831 Remember that in many cases the departing country also needs some form of ID, so people usually have one. Also the airline can ask for some form of ID which enables identifying the passenger (i.e. with a photo) for security purposes. So in many cases you can't travel with just a birth certificate: who is to say I'm the person on that certificate? Note that the destination country will not accept that blindly either, they will need some way to corroborate it, so it's only proof of citizenship, not of identity.
    – jcaron
    Commented Jul 22 at 10:44
3

You can fly UK-Ireland on ANY airline with an EU ID card, which even the most incompetent gate agent will know in my experience. About API you're wrong: airlines submit that to UK authorities for ANY travel to/from the UK, so even UK <-> Ireland. Ireland collects API for flights arriving from any non-EU country, so even Norway and the UK.

Improve this answer
10
  • 1
    For the possibility of flying, I don't agree: I called the Aer Lingus service centre twice and they say that their policy is what appears on the website: that is London to Dublin is only allowed for non-Irish non-British by using passports; their digital tool on the website confirms this. I don't think gate agents are much more competent than website-writers, so I won't risk it. As for the API, the first sentence is most probably wrong (and I can find reference if you want). I agree with the second sentence about API.
    – user156032
    Commented Jul 21 at 18:02
  • 1
    @user324831 What Aer Lingus customer service says has nothing to do with the practice of subcontracted gate agents (again, they're NOT Aer Lingus employees). I flew EDI-DUB and MAN-DUB twice each in March 2024 with zero comments. As for API, I regularly request a copy of my personal UK entry/exit record and I guarantee you it includes UK <-> Ireland flights. I'd send it to you if I could
    – Crazydre
    Commented Jul 21 at 18:06
  • 1
    @user324831 Airlines do provide API or TDI information to the UK authorities for UK/Ireland traffic. There was historically a “hole” there but that was fixed around 2016.
    – jcaron
    Commented Jul 21 at 23:52
  • Thanks. By the way, when I travelled Ireland - UK, my passport was never scanned at the airport nor ever did I need to insert my Passport numbers online: so how would the airline transmit my Passport number to the authorities?
    – user156032
    Commented Jul 22 at 8:07
  • Also does your entry/exit records include your travel document details?
    – user156032
    Commented Jul 22 at 8:53
1

Yes, you can

As a rule, any EU/EEA/CH citizen can enter any other EU country (and their own of course) with either a national passport or an identity card, even from outside the EU.

EU states :

As an EU national, you have the right to travel freely in the 27 EU member countries as well as in Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland (non-EU countries but members of the Schengen area) carrying either a valid passport or a national identity card (ID).

The main issue would be with the departure country.

The UK does not have exit checks, relying on the transport operator sending API (Advance Passenger Information), as long as your full name and date of birth are exactly the same on the document you used for entry and the document you use for exit you should not have a single issue regarding that requirement.

Improve this answer
10
  • 1
    There's no API between UK and Ireland, because of the common travel area.
    – user156032
    Commented Jul 21 at 16:51
  • A good point. In my comment, I was assuming a two way trip. Indeed this direction should be possible provided that the airline is happy. A return to the UK might not be possible.
    – badjohn
    Commented Jul 21 at 16:51
  • How to deal with the confusion which will certainly arise at the airport with Aer Lingus? I don't understand yet whether Aer Lingus will let me board; they might be legitimately entitled to stop me if their policy is more restrictive than the actual travel requirements.
    – user156032
    Commented Jul 21 at 16:52
  • That is hard to predict. Ryan Air are famous for being strict. It is a long time since I used Aer Lingus and my experience would not be relevant as I am both British and Irish.
    – badjohn
    Commented Jul 21 at 16:56
  • Fly to Belfast and take a train?
    – badjohn
    Commented Jul 21 at 16:57
1

I am provisionally answering my own question: Aer Lingus can legitimately deny me boarding.

I know I can cross the border with my EU identity card. The information on Aer Lingus says that they would prevent me from boarding. I know that airlines sometimes are utterly incompetent and follow absurdly restrictive policies. I deduce from the Aer Lingus website that they wouldn't be violating their own policy by denying me boarding. I don't think I'm entitled to compensation unless the airline breaches its own policy. Therefore, there's very concrete odds that I will be denied boarding and compensation. Unless someone comes up with some pretty solid insight which I missed, then I will accept my own answer tomorrow.

Improve this answer
3
  • 1
    Like I said, I've flown Aer Lingus twice Manchester-Dublin and twice Edinburgh-Dublin in March 2024, on an EU ID card, and no one raised a single eyebrow
    – Crazydre
    Commented Jul 21 at 22:46
  • 2
    That answer comes to nothing more, an airline can deny you boarding for any reason. The only thing that you can do then is get compensation under UK/EU261 if the reason is invalid. It is unequivocally clear that you do not need a passport
    – Nicolas Formichella
    Commented Jul 22 at 6:38
  • @NicolasFormichella Compensation and free re-routing (or reimbursement of re-routing expenses), plus meals and accommodation if needed
    – Crazydre
    Commented Jul 22 at 7:33

You must log in to answer this question.