Travelling from Ireland to UK on Irish Driving license with Ryanair

sinjin_smythe

Hi,

I had a quick question. My passport will be with the American Embassy when I plan to travel to the UK for the weekend. I have an Irish passport card however it expires in a months time, so my next alternative would be to use my Irish driving license. Does anyone know if Ryanair current accept Irish driving licenses for travel from Irealnd to the UK (and return).

I called up Ryanair and they told me passport card needed to be valid for 3 months prior to flying but that the Irish drivers license would be acceptable however googling this says only passport is valid so just want to be extra careful.

Appreciate all and any responses!

ELM327

In accordance with the common travel agreement, all you need if you are an irish citizen is a driving licence. However, unlike Paddy with a Cork accent, someone clearly not of irish nationality by birth subjectively would need to prove citizenship - and that's a passport.

TLDR you'd need a passport

munchkin_utd

an irish passport card though is equivalent to an irish passport and is more than sufficient for immigration purposes to get to another part of the CTA

ffs, the brits even say "an Irish passport card (current or expired)" is grand when going from IRL to UK

https://www.gov.uk/uk-border-control/before-you-leave-for-the-uk

Ryanair are some muppets

Nigel Fairservice

I've never heard of minimum passport validity requirements for Irish citizens travelling to the UK. I'd probably just go with the passport card. As far as I know Ryanair don't accept driving licences for travel to the UK. Aer Lingus do I believe.

Pauliedragon

Don't you have to have a passport to fly Ryanair anyway as per their own rules? I saw a guy a few months ago heading to London and they weren't letting him go through as he had no passport.

cml387

Ryanair are very clear about this. It's a valid passport only, Driving license is not acceptable.

It's irrelevant that we have a CTA with the UK, this is a condition which Ryanair impose to board the plane.

Passport card is fine. They just make sure the name matches

sinjin_smythe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120447962#Comment_120447962

Even if the passport card will expire within 3 months of flying. Its valid now and will be during my trip but is due to expire in June. I'm just worried they'll refuse on that basis.

cml387

You'll be ok, there's no basis for Ryanair to refuse if the card is valid on the day of boarding

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120448241#Comment_120448241

Yeah fine. You don't even go past passport control arriving into the UK

elperello

As above the passport requirement is imposed by Ryanair simply to make life easy for themselves.

I think you will be ok with your passport card but if you are still concerned you could call DOFA for advice.