Twelve-year-old boy kicked off plane because his parents hadn’t paid an extra fee.

The young boy, from Northeast Ohio, was travelling alone for the first time from Cleveland to Tampa to visit his grandmother.

The flight to Tampa went smoothly but on his way back home the unaccompanied minor was escorted off his flight after a gate agent allowed him on the Frontier Airlines plane without a minor fee, which is supposed to be paid ahead of time, WOIO TV reports.

The boy’s parents, Desiree and John Ilg, booked the flight through a third-party site and said they thought they paid the minor fee for both trips when they bought the round-trip ticket.

Ms Ilg told WOIO TV that they would have paid the minor’s fee for the flight home if the airline had contacted them about the mishap.

Frontier Airlines staff escorted the young boy off the flight because his parents reportedly hadn’t paid the extra minors fee.Source:istock

She said the lack of communication from the airline, which left their son stranded alone at an airport, was the worst part.

“The worst part was the airline didn’t contact us. Our son had to contact us. But he could have also not had a phone,” she told the local television network.

“If they contacted us ... to let us know that there was an issue with the ticket, we would have had time to pay the fee.”

Frontier Airlines has since apologised for the incident, saying there was indeed a “customer service failure” on their part. However, they also claimed they did try to contact Mr and Mrs Ilg.

“At the time Frontier made every effort to contact the parents to notify them of this issue regarding fee collection in the absence of a guardian with the child at the airport,” a statement issued by the airline read.

“We have coached airport team members and ensured compliance with Frontier policy regarding unaccompanied minor travel.”

The airline reportedly only offered the apology after local media picked up on the story. Mr Ilg told WOIO TV that Frontier originally only offered a $50 travel voucher, which he said was “insulting”.

The boy was left alone for two hours at the airport, until his grandma came back to pick him up.

Airlines charge a fee for unaccompanied minors, which ensures the child gets special treatment and extra service. In Frontier’s case, the fee is $110 per direction.