A gran was left crying at the airport after Ryanair refused her boarding - forcing her family to leave her at the gate.
Michele Hawken, from Cornwall, was looking forward to her family holiday to Portugal with two other adults and two children joining her for the trip.
However she was stopped from boarding despite still having three months left before her passport ran out of date. Airline staff told her it had expired because it had been issues ten years ago on May 15, 2012.
READ MORE: Edinburgh Airport to welcome new Loganair direct flights to Norway
According to Birmingham Live, Nicky, another adult in the holiday party, explained: “When we arrived at check-in having just told the grandchildren at arrival they were coming as well, we were told one granny was not able to fly. We had already checked with all regulations and all was ok, such as gov.uk, passports and the airport, etc."
She added: "We asked why when we could have gone with any other airline and come home with Ryanair and, as you can imagine, there were lots of tears and upset.
"We have heard several cases of this happening but we had two grandchildren involved and everyone was so upset."
Nicky said: “It’s awful. We always go away as friends and this was meant to be special as a surprise to the grandchildren. We packed their suitcases in secret and everything.
"They thought they were coming to the airport to wave us off. We’re all devastated and can’t understand how this happened and why nothing flagged up when we checked-in in advance.”
A Ryanair spokesman issued a statement which said: "This passenger was correctly refused travel at Cornwall Airport Newquay on 26 April last as her passport did not meet the entry requirements for travel to the EU (Portugal)."
