A teenager has been denied boarding a Ryanair flight despite having five months left on their passport and complying with new Brexit travel rules.
Zak Schoneville, 15, and his family were due to travel from Glasgow Prestwick Airport to Tenerife on Monday, May 2, but were denied entry to the plane at the gate. The airline claimed Zak's passport had expired even though it had five months left, the Mirror reports. The document was issued in March 2017 and has an expiry date of 31 October 2022, meaning it meets the current European Union requirements of being less than 10 years old and having at least three months validity on the passenger's return date.
Mum Lisa Schoneville told The Independent : "He explained this was due to Brexit and that passports were only valid for five or 10 years from the date of issue. We didn't want to cause a scene at the check-in desk so we left and sat down to research this further. We couldn't find any information on this rule, and could only find the information stated about the 10-year passport rule."
Children's passports automatically meet the new rule's requirements due to being valid for a maximum of five years and nine months. Ms Schoneville said: "We asked on numerous occasions for links to websites but were never provided with any physical evidence.
“They told us they had called 'Ryanair Immigration' and they advised them to refuse our travel. We asked them to call again in front of us so we could hear what they had to say. 'Ryanair Immigration' confirmed we were not allowed to travel."
Once back home, the family called Ryanair again and were informed that Zak needed six months on his passport prior to travelling to the EU and three months on his passport for travelling back to the UK, which is incorrect. Addressing the issue of passport validity, Ryanair said in a statement: "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."
Last week, budget airline EasyJet became the last major UK airline to adopt correct European rules on passport validity. The carrier has started paying compensation to passengers who have been wrongly denied boarding.
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