A low-cost airline banned a passenger from flying after he was mistaken for another person on its no-fly list

• A low-cost airline banned a passenger from flying with them for 10 years, the Mirror reports.
• Kieran Harris was blacklisted as he was mistaken for someone else on the airline's no-fly list.

A low-cost airline banned a passenger from flying after the airline had mistaken him for another person who was blacklisted.

UK budget airline EasyJet told Kieran Harris that he was blacklisted from the airline "due to previous disruptive behavior," according to a May 24 email obtained by the Mirror. Harris, 21, was scheduled to fly from Liverpool, UK, to Alicante, Spain the following day, the Mirror reported on June 3.

EasyJet then barred Harris from flying on the airline for 10 years — until March 15, 2031, per the Mirror. Should Harris book any flights before the sanction expires, the ban would be lengthened accordingly, the report said.

But Harris wasn't the person who was blacklisted in the past by EasyJet. Turns out that he shares his full name and birth date with another passenger, who was sentenced to 12 weeks in jail for aggressive behavior, per the Mirror. The blacklisted passenger had threatened to kill cabin crew on board an EasyJet flight in May 2021.

"I was gutted. I couldn't quite get my head around it," Harris told the Mirror, adding that he "didn't have a seat on the flight, and there was no point in me even going to the airport."

EasyJet then asked Harris to provide a photo of his passport to verify his identity, that he was, in fact, not the blacklisted passenger, per Mirror. The airline lifted the ban just a few hours before Harris's scheduled flight, according to the report.

An EasyJet spokesperson told Insider that the decision to ban Harris was made "in good faith," and that the airline "did all possible to resolve the matter so he could travel as originally planned."

Harris told the Mirror the stressful experience deters him from flying with EasyJet again in the future.

"I'm thinking of getting a name change if this continues to happen," he added.

According to the database Archives.com, some 1 million records are found for people with the name "Kieran Harris" in the UK alone.

"We made this decision in good faith," the airline's spokesperson told Insider, adding that the airline "will offer a gesture of goodwill in light of his experience."

In August, a woman was mistakenly barred from boarding a flight on Ryanair, another low-cost carrier, to Majorca, Spain. Ryanair said ground staff had misinterpreted air travel rules after Brexit.

Harris did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.