James Gray was fined 600 euros by KLM after the incident on an Edinburgh to Amsterdam to flight, and was told he can't fly with them for five years.
He says airline staff accused him of trying to open the door of the plane, but he insists he only touched the handle after confusing it for the door to the toilet.
Mr Gray, from Alloa, was escorted from the KLM flight from Edinburgh to Amsterdam the moment it touched down at Schiphol Airport.
He was whisked away to a nearby detention centre where he spent the night before he was fined £434 (600 euros).
But when he went to fly home he said KLM staff refused to let him board and said he was banned from flying with them for five years.
He only made it back after a pal paid for him to travel with a rival airline.
"I tried to explain it was a simple mistake. It was a misunderstanding. The police came and arrested me.
They weren't too friendly." He also had to borrow money after the fine wiped out his holiday funds.
He said: "I was charged and fined 600 euros.
"I only had 750 euros with me so I had to borrow money for the rest of the stay over there."
Mr Gray said he doesn't know if he will face any further action over the incident but is adamant he wouldn't dream of opening a plane door on purpose.
"I realise the danger of that sort of thing," he added.
A spokeswoman for Schiphol Airport and a spokesperson for the Royal Dutch Border Police both refused to comment.
KLM said a passenger had been handed over to authorities due to "his misbehaviour" on-board.
I think that it was probably a genuine mistake and if so, what a costly one.
It wouldn't have helped much if he'd worn a sombrero either.
University BANS sombreros after they are branded 'racist' by officials
A Mexican restaurant has been banned from handing out free sombreros to students because the publicity stunt was branded 'racist' by university officials.
Pedro's Tex-Mex Cantina, a Norwich restaurant, gave the hats to University of East Anglia students at a freshers' fair in the city in a bid to drum up business from the student population.
But officials at the students' union, where the fair was held last week, took the sombreros from students and ordered the restaurant to stop giving them out because they thought it was offensive for non-Mexicans to wear them. The union said the sombreros were seen as racist and a form of 'cultural appropriation'.
One first-year student told student newspaper The Tab: 'It's ridiculous – it's a comedy hat, not some sort of sacred religious dress. Who is going to get offended? Speedy Gonzales?'