The democratic vote to leave the European Union has had many unexpected consequences for travellers. One of the most serious: UK passengers wrongly denied boarding by their airlines because their passports are deemed no longer valid after Brexit.
So rife is the problem that my “pinned post” on X (formerly Twitter) reminds travellers, and airlines that a UK passport must meet two conditions for travel to the European Union (and wider Schengen area):
- On day of entry to the EU, issued less than 10 years ago.
- On intended day of exit from EU, at least three months left before expiry date.
Seeking to inform the travelling public about the rules that our government signed up for has been one thing. I then last year spent several weird months explaining to our government the agreement it had made with Brussels.
The Foreign Office and Home Office initially insisted that British passports expire after nine years and nine months, a fiction briefly extended to claim that children’s UK passport were no good after four years, nine months.
Eventually, in May 2022, officials and ministers conceded that I was right and changed government advice. By then, I thought I had also persuaded the airlines about the rules, with Ryanair and easyJet last to fall into line.
Yet deep into 2023, ground staff at UK airports are still turning passengers away needlessly – causing distress to travellers and triggering hundreds of pounds in compensation.
In November, British Airways staff at London Heathrow stopped Laura Savage catching her flight to Oslo, while in December Mark Starkey was turned away from a dawn Ryanair flight from Luton airport to Alicante.
Each time cases like these appear, it has the welcome effect of informing previous victims of wrongful denials of boarding to come forward. Here is Camilla, who in February last year was refused boarding a flight for a three-day trip to Italy. Her airline claimed she needed six months remaining on my passport to travel.
“My passport was issued on 1 May 2012 and expired on 1 July 2022,” Camilla says. “Can you confirm that I was wrongly turned away? If so, what do I do about claiming compensation?”
Camilla’s passport was valid for travel to the EU until 1 April 2022; all travel would have to be completed by that date because of the “three-month rule”. So Camilla was…
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