A boy was left in tears and apologising to his little brother after a row over his passport saw them barred from a Ryanair flight. Ryley McGuckin, 11, was told his passport was invalid - despite it not running out for another four months.
The holiday nightmare happened as the family prepared to jet off on their holiday to Tenerife from Prestwick Airport. It meant his whole family ended up walking away from the flight and heading home to Falkirk, reports the Daily Record.
However, knowing their documents were sound, the family then decided to try their luck at Edinburgh Airport. And after forking out £600 for new tickets they were allowed to travel with a different airline which confirmed there was nothing amiss with Riley's documents.
The holiday nightmare happened following changes to Brexit travel rules. Under the new rules on entering the EU state passports must be less than 10 years old and have at least three months' validity left on the passenger's return date.
Ryley's travel document was issued in March 2017 and expires in September 2022 meaning his passport is valid for use until June 31. But Ryanair told mum Natasha Rae that Ryley's passport was more than five years old - rendering it invalid in the EU.
Natasha told the Record problems happened as : "We arrived at the airport on Monday at 4am to check-in for the flight at 6am and the person at the desk said they had to phone 'Ryanair immigration'. "After they got off the phone they said we weren't able to fly because his passport was invalid and that it was against the law. We were absolutely devastated. Both of my sons were crying. Barry wasn't old enough to understand and was absolutely distraught.
"Ryley was devastated because he thought it was all his fault we couldn't go on holiday and he was apologising to his wee brother." Natasha had been careful in preparing for the holiday - a Christmas gift from her mum - after reading recent horror stories of families being turned away from flights post-Brexit.
She checked her partner Chris Bell’s passport along with both Riley and his seven-year-old brother Barry's documents with the Passport Office and the FCDO before they left. And they were furious when Ryley got rejected from the flight.
The family returned home to Falkirk before deciding to chance their luck at Edinburgh Airport and fly with another airline, and package holiday firm Jet2 was happy to welcome the entire family on board and they've since made their way to Tenerife - albeit after splashing out an extra £600 for the new flights. Natasha claims Ryanair "made up" the child passport rule.
And she is seeking compensation from the airline for the stress and extra cost. She said: "I doubt I'm going to be able to get my money back - I just don't trust Ryanair at all now.
"It's not like I just had £600 lying around for the Jet2 flights either. People save year round for this. This is our first big family holiday since before the pandemic, and we were so excited.
"Ryanair has just made up its own rules. I will never fly with them again, ever." Another Scottish family, flying with their teenage son Zak Schoneville, 15, suffered a similar fate with the budget airline after trying to board on the same flight on Monday.
Natasha bumped into the Schonevilles in Tenerife - saying she had "never been happier to see someone she didn't know". A spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said that anyone who is denied boarding with "no reasonable grounds" to do so is entitled to compensation.
Reimbursement should be sought from the airline first - then through an alternative dispute resolution scheme (ADR) if the carrier does not resolve the initial complaint. The CAA did not say whether it was working with Ryanair to ensure its rules were in line with the law.
A statement from Ryanair to the Record admitted the airline's mistake and confirmed the family had been given a full refund for the unused flight. It said: "Our Immigration Dept have now clarified this case with the EU Commission and we now accept that our handling agents at Glasgow Prestwick Airport wrongly believes that this child's passport was not valid for travel as they wrongly believed that a child's passport must be no more than 5 years old on the date of travel, whereas in fact, all UK nationals travelling to the EU, regardless of age, must meet the same entry requirements for travel to the EU, which are:
"1. Passports must be issued within 10 years of the date of arrival into the EU. 2. The passport must be valid for at least three months from the return date of travel from the EU, unless the passenger has a Schengen issued Residence Permit or a Schengen long term visa.
"In light of this clear error on our part, we have written to his family and given them a full refund of GBP £313.79 cost of their unused flights and as a gesture of goodwill we have also given them a travel voucher for another £315 which we hope they will use to book more Ryanair flights for the family in the very near future. We apologise sincerely for the error we made in this case and we have updated our briefing notes to all our airport handling agents to ensure this error does not recur."
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