A RYANAIR passenger who had more than a year left on his passport was banned from his flight due to confusing rules.
Ian Glover, 66, had booked flights with the budget airline from East Midlands Airport to Portugal.
His passport had an expiry date of April 2023, so he assumed it was still in date.
However, the start date was in July 2012, and he had rolled over some additional months from the previous document – which are no longer valid.
Therefore his passport expiry was actually July 2023 – meaning he didn't have enough, according to Ryanair rules.
This is because he would need at least three months left on his passport – as he was planning on returning to the UK in May, this would mean it needs to have an expiry date of August 2022.
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He told Derbyshire Live that he was only made aware of this at the Ryanair check in desk when staff told him it wasn't valid.
He said: "What they’re saying is that 10 years after the passport expires obviously, but they also want 3 months from the expiry of the date of issue. That’s not being made clear at all.”
He was then told to go to Jet2 as they "didn't follow the same rules," and so had to buy a different flight.
Thankfully he made it on a flight the next day, and was able to use his Ryanair return as the passport expiry does not matter for Brits returning to the UK.
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While Mr Glover praised the staff for being helpful, he said the advice wasn't good enough for holidaymakers, with the government website being too confusing.
He warned: "I think there are going to be a lot of people turning up at airports in the summer, who are thinking ‘great, here we go’, I think there should just be more information to be honest."
A Ryanair spokesperson said: "Ryanair complies with all European Commission travel regulations and passengers travelling between the EU and the UK after the end of the transition period must have a passport that is not valid for more than 10 years.
"In the instance of Mr. Glover – he was correctly denied boarding to his flight to Faro. Considering the 10 year rule, his passport would be expiring on 06 July 2022. As the passenger was returning from the Schengen Area on 4th May 2022, we calculate 3 months from this date – which is 4th August 2022, and unfortunately his passport would have been expired."
Mr Glover isn't the first person this has happened to – Mum Clarice Easson was banned from her flight to Cyprus with her husband Alan when she was incorrectly told she needed at least six months left on her passport.
And last year, passenger Abi Campbell was stopped from boarding her flight back from to Glasgow from Tenerife after being told her passport was not valid.
Despite expiring in May 2022, the issue date was August 2011 – and was told it was only valid up to August 2021.
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EasyJet recently amended their website to say passports only need three months before expiry when travelling, previously requiring six months.
We've explained your holiday rights including how to claim a refund.
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