Hull is an intriguing place with a rich history that rewards a weekend stay. But even the city’s most ardent fans would concede that is not quite such a draw as Paris. Regrettably, Laura and Joe Booth are spending the weekend beside the Humber rather than the Seine.
On Friday morning the couple arrived at Humberside airport at 5am to board KLM flight 970 to Amsterdam, with a connection to Paris CDG. Joe had arranged it as a surprise trip to celebrate Laura’s birthday.
They both had passports valid for their weekend trip. Laura’s passport expires in June this year, but is good for travel anywhere in the EU until 21 March 2025. Plug the issue and expiry dates and details of the trip into the KLM “TravelDoc” passport checker and you get a big green ticket with a message reading: “You are clear to board this flight.”
But ground staff working for KLM at the airport decided they knew better.
“Check-in staff took it upon themselves to remove three months from her passport validity – and refused her a boarding pass,” Joe told me soon after 9am on Friday.
It is four years since that “oven-ready” Brexit deal with the European Union took effect. The UK successfully negotiated with Brussels for British passport holders to become “third-country nationals” alongside citizens of Venezuela and Samoa. That means a UK passport must meet two conditions:
- On the day of outbound travel to the EU, less than 10 years since the issue date.
- On the intended day of return from the EU, at least three months remaining before the expiry date.
Back in 2021, I told all the major airlines what the rules were. British Airways, Jet2 and Wizz Air complied. For a time, Ryanair and easyJet used an entirely fictitious rule of their own making, claiming UK passports were not valid for Europe more than nine years and nine months after issue. Eventually they fell into line.
Ground staff have a difficult, time-pressured job to do. They also have to enforce a confusing mass of passport validity rules. But given that most UK citizens flying abroad are heading to the European Union, they really should have mastered the basics by now.
At Humberside they haven’t. The couple says they were told: “The passport is only valid for 10 years from the issue date of 21 April 2015, it…
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