A British pensioner was banned from boarding a flight with Ryanair to travel back to his home after a tiny mark on his passport made it invalid. David Burton, 70, has lived in Portimo, Portugal for 30 years, but was in the UK for his closest friend’s funeral. However, the grieving expat was blocked from flying home when the airline said a small tear in his passport meant he was unable to fly.
The father-of-two had planned to fly from Exeter to Faro at 5.35pm with Ryanair, yet was abruptly stopped at the check-in desk when a member of staff noticed the tear. This was caused by a luggage sticker years ago, which had torn off the surface paper of David’s official observations page.
The pensioner insisted that he had travelled across Europe for years using the passport, never once having an issue with border control prior to the incident at Exeter airport.
The 70-year-old has now admitted to The Sun that he was left feeling “shook up and startled” from the experience.
After handing the check-in staff his passport, they went away to check the document before returning and said “that Ryanair is very strict with documents”.
“He came back with another young man and he said, ‘You won’t be travelling to Portugal today from this airport. You might be able to travel from Bristol or Gatwick’,” Mr Burton explained.
“He was trying to assert himself, so I thought there was no point in arguing.
“Not that they would know, but I’d just laid one of my friends to rest.
“My wife told me to go outside and get some fresh air. I wouldn’t treat anyone the way I was treated.”
The pensioner told the newspaper that the staff were “looking for a problem and a reason not to let [him] fly”.
Following being turned away, Mr Burton was not offered a refund for his flight. Instead, he was set back hundreds of pounds as he booked a new Jet2 flight from Bristol the next day.
The next day, he went through check-in with no issue, as staff said his passport was valid to fly.
A Ryanair spokeswoman told The Sun: “This passenger was correctly refused travel on this flight from Exeter to Faro by the gate agent at Exeter Airport as his passport was damaged and therefore not valid for travel.”