A pensioner was blocked from boarding his Ryanair flight to Portugal on Monday – despite his passport not expiring until April 2023.
Ian Glover, 66, was turned away from the Ryanair check-in desk at East Midlands Airport for his flight to Faro in Portugal on Monday, April 25. They told him his passport was too close to its expiry date.
The retired chartered surveyor, from Derby, renewed his passport in 2012 with a year to go, meaning its new expiry date ten years later falls in April 2023. The government website says to travel to Portugal a UK citizen’s passport must be less than ten years since the date of issue and be valid for at least three months after the date you leave, reports DerbyshireLive.
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Ryanair said the issues were because Mr Glover had renewed his passport early and the EU does not recognise the extra months added to the expiry date. This means the expiry date is July 2022 – and the three month travelling period would end in August.
Mr Glover believes the rules are unclear and many holidaymakers could be refused from their flights this summer.
He said: “As I was going through the Ryanair check-in desk, she said that your passport isn’t valid. I said it was because I looked at the Government website and it said that it shouldn’t have been issued more than ten years ago, and it was issued in July 2012, which means the 10 years is July this year, and it also stated you needed to have three months from expiry, and the expiry is the 6th April 2023.
“I’d read stories about people having problems so I’d looked into it but thought I was fine. What Ryanair were saying was that the expiry date is irrelevant, it’s the issue date that matters.
“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.”
Mr Glover was told by the Ryanair worker that the three months after travelling would also need to be within ten years of passport issue. As Mr Glover was planning on returning to the UK in May, three months after this date would be in August 2022, more than ten years after his passport was first issued.
But Mr Glover explained that his real issue is with the Government website that does not make these travel restrictions clear enough.
He added: “The Ryanair lady said she was so sorry but she really couldn’t let us through, so she said go and talk with Jet2, which I didn’t really understand, but they said they didn’t follow the same rules and I could buy a ticket from them. I asked them to check my passport in depth and they said that’s all okay and I bought the ticket.
“I read the information and hadn’t heard about anyone being banned from going to Portugal. But it’s very confusing what Ryanair are doing and I can now understand why. What bothers me most is that it doesn’t make it clear.
“The language the Government website uses - ‘it may need’, ‘it might be’ - I’ve just gone on the passport validity. I had loads of time left on my passport and I was well within the six months.”
The Government website states that in order to enter Portugal, a UK citizen’s passport must satisfy two conditions - be less than ten years from the date of issue, and be valid for at least three months after the date you leave. But it also adds that for some countries in the Schengen area of Europe, this extra three month rule may also apply.
Mr Glover was encouraged by the Ryanair assistant to ask the Jet2 desk if the same rules applied to them and if he was able to buy a ticket from them so he could join his family on holiday. They checked his passport and said he would be able to fly with them the next day (Apr 26) as they did not have the same passport restrictions.
He said: “Jet2 looked through everything and said their flight to Portugal had just gone but there was a flight tomorrow. They said I was fine to come back on my original ticket because I would be coming back into the UK and they’re okay with passports being like that.”
“I think people should just be aware of it because when I left the airport and spoke to a woman behind the bar, she was told her passport was exactly the same or had even less time, so I don’t think she’ll be able to get a new one in time for her holiday. 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.
“To be fair the lady on the Ryanair desk was pleasant and she did recommend solutions like Jet2. After I went off to get a coffee at arrivals, she’d finished her shift and came running up to me and asked how I got on, and was so pleased when I told her I got another ticket.
“She was most helpful and did the best she could, and I was pleased she told me I was pleasant as well. After the day I’d had I just felt as flat as a pancake but I counted my blessings being able to come back here and play my golf and play my tennis.
“I’m very lucky really. It was a right blow rushing round the hospital, and then we rushed off thinking we’d made it, only for that to happen, we felt very flat.”
A spokesperson for Ryanair 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. These T&C’s are available here on Ryanair.com.
"The Schengen Borders Code Article 6, Section 1 (A), states that any non-EU nationals who want to travel into Schengen will need to comply with passport validity of three months within the 10 year rule. The only exemption of this rule is when British (or other non-EU) nationals are in possession of a residence permit for an EU Member State.
"The Passport Office adds extra months on top of the 10 years when passengers renew the document early, however as per the above Article, the EU does not recognise the extra months added to the 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."
