A WOMAN was forced to miss her holiday after she was stopped from boarding an easyJet flight when they discovered an issue with her passport.
Donna Fairclough was due to fly out of Manchester Airport and was ‘heartbroken’ to miss out on an £820 holiday to Malta.
Donna Fairclough and her fiancé Gary Broadley were due to fly to Malta from Manchester Airport on January 3, 2026.
However, Donna was turned away from the flight by easyJet because of a sizeable tear in her passport.
The damage was across the photo page of her travel document and the size of the tear meant that she wasn’t allowed to board the flight.
Talking to Manchester Evening News, Donna said: “The rip was initially about a quarter-of-an-inch. I was excited to go away. It was heartbreaking because we lost out on a holiday because of a rip.
“I said to my partner, you can still see my face and my passport number and it didn’t affect any of that. That’s what I couldn’t understand.”
As well as missing out on their holiday, the pair have claimed that easyJet won’t refund them for their break as the rip is classified as ‘accidental damage’.
Advice on the Gov.UK website reads: “If your passport is damaged you must replace it. You may not be able to travel with it. HM Passport Office will consider your passport damaged if […] any of the pages are ripped, cut or missing.”
HM Passport Office will also consider your passport damaged if you cannot read any of the details, the cover is coming away, or if there are stains on the page.
Donna has since got a new passport and has urged other holidaymakers to check theirs before travelling.
easyJet responded in a statement that the airline is “sorry” that Ms Fairclough was not able to go on her holiday and “understand how disappointing this must have been”.
The airline added it “works closely with the authorities and complies with their guidance to ensure the safety and security of customers and crew, and this means we can’t allow anyone to travel if their documentation is damaged.”
They then advised Donna on how she could get a new passport and have been in touch with further support.
It’s not just damage to passports that can halt passengers from boarding flights, issues with expiry dates have caught travellers out too.
Previous rules allowed British passport holders to roll over 10 months from their previous passports meaning they’d have validity of up to 10 years and 10 months.
But the current rules no longer see those additional 10 months as valid, even if they are on your passport.
So, if your passport was issued in June 2015, but your expiry date says September 2025, that expiry is actually incorrect.
Instead, your passport would have expired 10 years past the start date – making the real expiry is actually June 2025.
There’s also the three month rule – a number of countries require British holidaymakers to have a few additional months left on their passport to travel.
Most places in Europe require British travellers to have at least three months left on the passport before it expires.
Passport Rules
Everything you need to know about passports
Here’s another common passport mistake that is costing Brits £1.1million a year on holiday.
And another woman was left sobbing after easy passport mistake saw her BANNED from her flight.