A family say they were escorted from an airport departure lounge "like criminals" because an EU ruling post Brexit meant the mum's passport was invalid - despite it still being in date. As a result of the confusion, Meg Gordon says she has lost £2,000, and has complained the airport bosses about her treatment.
Her family - Meg, husband Andy and their 16-year-old twins Jasmine and Dylan - arrived at Cornwall Airport Newquay on Saturday night to catch a Ryanair flight to Portugal. It was to be the first family holiday since the Covid pandemic and they were going to stay with Meg's brother.
She told CornwallLive: "We checked the bags in, had the passports checked and scanned - no problem, went through security and sat in the departure lounge and watched it fill up with other eager, excited passengers.
Read more: Passport rules confusion over EU travel sees Newcastle Airport passenger refused flight
"Brilliant, the time had come to board the plane. Andy, Jas and Dylan were in front of me, but when a member of the ground staff checked my passport she told me it’s out of date. I replied, ‘sorry I think you are mistaken it’s valid until April 2023’.
"‘No it’s not’ - the ten years run from the issue date, in my case July 8, 2012. I was then abruptly informed that as the UK are no longer in the EU the rules have changed and I would not be able to travel. I was marched back through the busy departure gate in front of everyone while my family were still waiting to board the plane."
When Meg got married, she renewed her passport to change her surname. People renewing passports then were allowed to carry forward up to nine months from their old passport to their new one, but his changed after Brexit rules came into force.
Portugal is one of 26 European countries within the Schengen Area of free movement. Now countries in the Schengen Area are insisting that passports must be issued within the previous 10 years upon the date of arrival into the EU; and the passport must be valid for at least three months from the return date of travel from the EU.
It has meant many who think their passports are valid because they are not due to expire for some time may be denied entry to EU countries. We reported this week an almost identical story occurring at Newcastle Airport when Durham scientist Dr Bob Banks and his wife Gillian were going on a trip.
Dr Banks had renewed his previous passport early like Meg too, and he was turned away at the departure gate by Swissport staff working for KLM. However in his case his passport would still have been less than 10 years old for the duration of his EU trip, apparently conforming with the new rules, and the couple are still in dispute with KLM.
Meanwhile Meg, who believes these details haven't been made clear to British travellers, said: "We were completely unaware of it. I asked how I got through check-in over two hours ago without it being noticed, plus I entered my passport details when I purchased the flights. They couldn’t answer."
She was then met by an airport supervisor, as there wasn't a Ryanair representative based at the airport, to be told that they had to get her bags off and to make a decision if the rest of her family were going to fly without her.
Meg said: "I was happy for Andy, Jas and Dylan to go ahead and said I would try and get to London to renew my unexpired passport. The supervisor then told me that was unlikely and abruptly asked for a decision.
"Subsequently our bags arrived very quickly and we were escorted out of the airport like criminals," added Meg, who works for the NHS in paediatrics.
"We just want to raise awareness to other people, especially in Cornwall, which will get hit the hardest by the cost of living crisis."
Newquay Cornwall Airport told CornwallLive its terminal team is liaising directly with the family involved as "we investigate further internally". Travel documentation requirements for passports and visas can be found here.
A spokesperson for Ryanair said: "This passenger was correctly denied travel as her passport did not meet the entry requirements for travel to the EU (Portugal) which are:
"This passenger’s passport was issued on 8 July 2012 and is therefore no longer valid for travel to/from the EU after 8 July 2022, as the passenger was travelling outside the 10-year validity period. Ryanair requires each passenger to ensure that their passport is valid for travel on both the date of their outbound and return flight date."
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