Stephen Jackson was expecting to spend the weekend playing golf in Spain. Along with three friends, the 66-year-old retired aeronautical engineer from Preston travelled to Manchester airport in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The four were booked on the 6.20am easyJet flight, which was due to touch down at Alicante airport around 10am â in good time for a round of golf.
Mr Jackson has a passport valid for travel out to Spain and the rest of the European Union until 10 December 2024 for a stay of up to 90 days.
But ground staff working for easyJet insisted it was not valid and turned him away.
Mr Jackson said: âWhen we arrived at the airport we self-checked in our golf bags and attached the baggage label.
âWhen going to the bag drop-off point an easyJet employee asked to see my passport which I did.
âShe then informed me that my passport was invalid, saying âThe expiry date is now 10 years from the issue date and that there was less than three months from that on my return homeâ.â
Since Brexit, UK passports must meet two conditions for travel to the European Union:
Mr Jacksonâs passport comfortably met both these conditions.
EasyJet, along with Ryanair and the UK government, wrongly combined these conditions for many months until they agreed to apply the actual rules as imposed by Brussels and notified to them by The Independent three years ago. But mistakes are evidently continuing.
At Manchester, Mr Jackson showed the ground staff member the Foreign Office passport guidelines from the UK government website.
âShe said that I was incorrect and I could not board,â he said. âI had the same conversation with a supervisor and the same result. Realising I could not win, I set off home by train, leaving the other three to go to Spain.â
When Mr Jackson alerted The Independent, easyJet swiftly investigated and apologised.
A spokesperson said: âWe are very sorry that Mr Jackson was incorrectly denied boarding on his flight from Manchester to Alicante.
âThis was due to a misunderstanding at the gate of the passport validity rules for travel to Spain and we are following up with our ground handling agent in Manchester to ensure this doesnât happen in future.
âWe are in touch with Mr Jackson to apologise for the error and to reimburse him in full or provide an alternative flight, settle his expenses and process his compensation.â
Mr Jackson is due ÂŁ350 in denied boarding compensation. He said: âI am usually a chilled-out guy but during my experience at the airport I was so angry I was shaking â especially as I knew I was right after checking my passport validity.
âThe easyJet attitude was so crap: âThey are right, you are wrong, so toddle off and leaveâ.
âIt was so humiliating to leave my friends and trot off to the train station.â
EasyJet says it is investigating to see if other passengers have been wrongly denied boarding by the ground staff involved in Mr Jacksonâs case.
Last month British Airways ground staff at London Gatwick scuppered a Spanish golfing break for David Muir from Oxford in a similar fashion.
He had a passport valid for travel to the European Union, but a series of airline representatives repeatedly claimed it had expired. Also at Gatwick on the same day, BA wrongly denied boarding to a Florida-bound passenger, Kathleen Matheson, inventing a rule that the US requires six months on British passports. There is no minimum validity requirement for the US.
The airline later apologised for both cases.
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