Washington, May 5 (IANS): US' Delta Air Lines has issued an apology for kicking a family with two young children off a flight after the customers had already boarded, the media reported.

The incident occurred on April 23 on Delta flight 2222 from Hawaii to Los Angeles, but footage of the ordeal was posted on YouTube on Wednesday by Brian Schear, the customer who can be seen arguing with a flight attendant during an eight-minute exchange, reports CNN.

At issue was a seat the man's infant son was in. That seat was booked under the name of Schear's older son, who took an earlier flight.

The family members who were on board the flight -- Schear, his wife and their two children -- were eventually escorted off the aircraft and flew to their destination on another flight with a different airline.

"We are sorry for the unfortunate experience our customers had with Delta, and we've reached out to them to refund their travel and provide additional compensation," the airline said in a statement on Thursday.

"Delta's goal is to always work with customers in an attempt to find solutions to their travel issues. That did not happen in this case and we apologise."

Schear can be heard in the video repeatedly saying that he paid for the seat in which his infant son was sitting.

He said it "isn't right" that the airline was asking him to give it up, CNN reported.

Delta said the flight was not overbooked, but there were passengers waiting to fly standby, which is why they were trying to make room on the flight.

Footage of the ordeal has racked up nearly 900,000 views on YouTube.