This seat is taken – by Baby Jesus: Man recounts unique travel saga

When two passengers on a flight to Malta witnessed a man strap what looked like a bubble-wrapped baby into the seat next to them, they stared in disbelief.

They felt no better when the man securing the seatbelt reassured them it would be quiet and would not cry during the flight.

Neil Zammit was in high spirits. He had finally got Baby Jesus onto a Ryanair flight from Sicily after a few hurdles. He bought the life-size statue of the bambino from Catania but did not realise bringing it home to Luqa would cause such a stir.

“I could not put the ticket on Baby Jesus’s name,” Zammit laughed.

So instead, he purchased a seat for the precious cargo, 33D, in his own name. That, however, was only the start of the adventure.

When he was told the religious statue made of plaster would break if it was sent to Malta by post, he thought he had it covered.

“I was travelling with my mates to Sicily in February, and I asked them if we could stop in Catania to attend the feast of St Agatha,” said the festa enthusiast.

“I organised to collect the statue I had purchased and checked out how I could transport it back. I was pleased to see it was possible to buy a dedicated extra seat if a passenger did not want to put the item in the hold.”

What the 40-year-old auditor missed was that he had to use a particular “code” when purchasing the additional seat.

I could not put the ticket on Baby Jesus’s name- Neil Zammit

Key rules for what are known as item seats and cabin items did not technically cover religious statues, but Ryanair allows special, fragile, or oversized items in the cabin by purchasing an extra seat.

When booking, he would have had to enter ‘EXTRA’ as the first name and ‘ITEM SEAT’ as the surname.

There could not be two Neil Zammits on the same flight, he found out at the gate.

Zammit got through the first hurdle when he went to scan his two boarding passes at the airport security checkpoint.

The security agent looked at him in bewilderment when he was asked what he was doing and matter-of-factly explained he had two boarding passes: “One for me and one for Baby Jesus.”

Zammit went through, holding his hand luggage and the statue “like a baby in my arms”, the second time round.

At the departure lounge the package raised eyebrows. Staff took it to be scanned again. Zammit began to suspect the amusing episode was becoming a “headache”.

When he got to the boarding gate, he forfeited his priority as Baby Jesus had been bought the cheapest ticket, and again, presented the two boarding passes with the same name.

“When I inadvertently told the hostess at the gate that one pass was for the ‘bambino’, she got a fright,” he laughed. Both were stopped from exiting the terminal to board the aircraft and panic set in.

Calls were made and it was the captain who had the last word and could give the go-ahead, Zammit said.

'Thought it would be OK'

“Everyone had boarded the plane by now, and I was waiting in limbo… until I saw the air hostesses break into a smile and I thought it would be OK.”

Zammit was told how to proceed in such cases in the future and warned that the statue would have to be placed in the seat it was booked into as the captain had to be aware it was not occupied by an actual passenger, he said.

Baby Jesus had been booked into the closest seat behind him, and he had planned to move it next to him instead of a friend “not to leave him alone”.

When he finally boarded, with the statue in his arms, his colleagues were all cheering and laughing, said the bachelor, who is not used to being seen cradling a baby.

“They did not know whether we would make it onto the plane and they filmed the whole farcical scene.”

Now the journey is over, his statue has been unpacked and is waiting on a shelf for him to create a plaster pedestal – more in keeping than an aisle seat – on which to display him next Christmas.