‘No new restrictions have been introduced’ Why did Ryanair stop letting Russian citizens board certain flights to Estonia?
In recent weeks, the Ireland-based budget airline Ryanair has been denying boarding to Russian citizens on flights to Estonia, citing unspecified new restrictions from Estonian authorities. However, Estonia’s border service insists it hasn’t made any changes to its rules regarding Russian travelers. Meduza explores the possible reasons for this apparent new policy.
Like several other E.U. countries, Estonia introduced new entry restrictions for Russian nationals in the fall of 2022. Under these rules, Russian citizens coming from outside the E.U. — whether by crossing the Estonia-Russia border or flying directly to Tallinn from cities like Istanbul or Yerevan — are barred from entry if they hold only a tourist Schengen visa. However, the restrictions don’t apply to Russians with residence permits or long-term visas from any E.U. country, as well as certain other categories of Russian travelers.
At the same time, Russian citizens remain legally permitted to enter Estonia from any other E.U. country, regardless of visa type or purpose of travel. Over the past two years, many Russian tourists have used Estonia as a transit point when returning home from trips to popular destinations such as Italy, Spain, or France. Flying to Tallinn and then taking a bus to St. Petersburg is often much cheaper and more convenient than a flight transfer through Istanbul.
Reports of Russian passengers being denied boarding for Tallinn-bound flights first surfaced in mid-February in travel-related Telegram groups. These incidents primarily involved flights from Barcelona and Dublin.
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According to affected passengers, Ryanair staff cited a supposed new law that had allegedly taken effect on February 10, prohibiting Russians from flying to Estonia regardless of their residence status. However, in every case, Ryanair representatives refused to provide passengers with a copy of this “new law” or issue formal denial-of-boarding documents that could be used to seek compensation in court.
The situation gained wider attention after the most significant wave of refusals on February 18, when 15 passengers were barred from boarding a Barcelona-Tallinn flight. Some had even brought printed emails from Estonia’s border service confirming that no new entry bans were in place, but these documents failed to convince Ryanair staff.
The following day, Russian passengers with E.U. residence permits were again denied boarding on a flight from Barcelona, while those with tourist visas were allowed to fly to Tallinn on the same plane. This time, according to passengers, Ryanair employees did not cite Estonian laws but rather an internal directive from the airline’s management.
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On February 19, Estonia’s border service issued an official statement to the news agency Delfi, confirming that while they regularly send airlines reminders about existing restrictions, one such routine message had been misinterpreted by Ryanair as a new regulation.
“Unfortunately, Ryanair has misunderstood the Police and Border Guard Department’s reminders. We are now in contact with them to resolve the misunderstanding. No new restrictions have been introduced,” the service said.
Ryanair itself has not commented on the situation. Throughout this period, no similar boarding issues have been reported on Tallinn-bound Ryanair flights from other E.U. cities apart from Barcelona and Dublin.
Denials of boarding on flights to Estonia and other Baltic countries were relatively common in late 2022, in the weeks following the introduction of entry restrictions. Many airlines, including Ryanair, initially applied the rules more broadly than necessary, as they are responsible for covering the cost of returning passengers denied entry and can also face fines. Until now, however, there had been no reports of large-scale boarding refusals.
