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Ellie Boltman, her husband Alex Stone and their two children were looking forward to a pre-Christmas holiday in the Canary Islands, flying with easyJet to Tenerife. They turned up at Luton airport on 16 December last year, in good time to drop their cases. All of them had valid passports that comfortably met both requirements for a holiday in the EU:
- Issued no more than 10 years ago
- At least three months to the expiry date
Ms Boltman’s passport was valid for travel to the European Union until late February 2025 – yet she was denied boarding by a member of easyJet check-in staff.
Mr Stone said: “She took one look at my wife’s passport and said Ellie wouldn’t be able to fly. She said that since Brexit the rules had changed and the expiry date was no longer relevant. She went off to ‘check with a colleague’ but returned very quickly and confirmed we couldn’t fly.
“She said the expiry date was actually the 10th anniversary of the issue date and we needed to be returning home at least three months before that date.”
No such rule has ever existed, though easyJet pretended it did for many months after the UK left the European Union in 2021. Eventually, after pressure from The Independent, the airline started applying the actual requirements.
But in Ms Boltman’s case, easyJet yet again reverted to its false interpretation of EU rules.
Mr Stone described the upsetting events at Luton airport: “We stepped to the side and spent 15 minutes deliberating what to do. We were travelling with our eight- and four-year-olds so you can imagine the scenes.
“We ultimately decided that I would take the children on the holiday and my wife Ellie went home.
“I checked in our cases and took my distraught children through security.”
Ms Boltman then travelled from the family home in London to Peterborough Passport Office to obtain a replacement. She flew out to join them three days later.
Meanwhile, her husband contacted easyJet to complain about the family’s treatment and seek the compensation to which they were entitled.
But the airline doubled down on its original wrong decision, telling Mr Stone: “Following the escalation of your case, it has been determined that our team refused your wife correctly due to her passport validity.”
EasyJet insisted Ms Boltman was in the wrong, even though customer-service staff were in possession of a copy of her passport showing she was perfectly entitled to travel. After triggering costs of around £1,000, the airline offered only a £13 refund of Air Passenger Duty.
When The Independent contacted easyJet on the family’s behalf, the airline reversed its decision. A spokesperson said: “We are very sorry that Ms Boltman was incorrectly denied boarding on her flight from Luton to Tenerife on 16 December.
“We have clear processes in place around documentation validity and so we are looking into this with our ground handling partner at Luton airport to understand why this wasn’t followed correctly on this occasion and why Ms Boltman was provided with incorrect information when she raised it with us, as this is not our policy.
“We have apologised to Ms Boltman for the error and are reimbursing her in full for alternative travel expenses and providing the compensation she is due.”
In October 2024, easyJet wrongly turned away golfer Stephen Jackson from a Manchester-Alicante flight on the same spurious grounds. And after passenger Jacqui McGeough was incorrectly denied boarding an Edinburgh-Naples flight in April 2024, the airline insisted five times that she was in the wrong, before finally admitting its mistakes.
Mr Stone said: “Despite meeting all requirements, my wife was denied boarding, causing emotional distress, financial loss, and a disrupted holiday for our family.
“Given the sheer scale of easyJet’s operation, it’s hard to believe they haven’t resolved what is ultimately a very simple compliance issue.”
