Would-be holidaymakers have had to leave Bristol Airport empty handed after being told to return their duty-free purchases following flight cancellations.
For weeks now airports and airlines across the country, including Bristol, have been plagued with issues around security and check-in delays, passengers queuing outside the departures building and hundreds of flights cancelled or delayed.
But one unknown consequence for these disappointed passengers who are told to return home when their flights are cancelled is that they can’t take any duty-free purchases with them, and are told to return any items they’ve bought before leaving the airport.
Read more: LIVE UPDATES as more disruption at Bristol Airport today amid more cancelled flights
A spokesperson for said: "Returning duty-free is normal procedure for a cancelled flight. Customers can purchase duty-free (and receive the duty-free discounted prices) [but] this allowance is only eligible for customers who are departing from the UK.
"When flights are cancelled, the customer is not leaving the UK, so it is a customs requirement that all duty-free purchases are returned, and a full refund provided. This is an HM Customs requirement."
But despite it being a legal requirement, the announcement to already disgruntled passengers at check-in desks has been met with humour and outrage.
Have you faced disruption at Bristol Airport? Should the public be more understanding of the issues facing the aviation industry right now? Let us know in the comments section.
Bristol resident Aaliyah Miller had a flight cancelled from Bristol Airport to Lisbon last month. She told Bristol Live: "I was told ten minutes before boarding that my flight was cancelled.
"As if that wasn't bad enough, being asked to return duty-free purchases was certainly salt in the wound. I think the entire room was in disbelief, and a chorus of laughter literally erupted when they made the duty-free announcement."
And on Monday (June 6) Twitter user, @AFrenchHome, said the Airport was expecting anyone with duty-free to 'return it before they leave'.
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