Can easyJet wrongly turn passengers away from flights and reject claims with impunity?

Sign up to Simon Calder’s free travel email for expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calder’s Travel email Get Simon Calder’s Travel email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy “Nothing makes up for the upset at being turned away at the boarding gate after looking forward to going away.” Tracey Robbens is one of thousands of British travellers wrongly denied boarding by airlines who chose to ignore the post-Brexit European Union rules on passport validity. Almost unbelievably, her third rejection came a week after easyJet assured me: “We are reissuing guidance to our customer teams, to ensure current passport validity rules are clear.” As I told easyJet last year, there are just two rules for British passport holders travelling to the European Union. “Then to be escorted through the airport and three members of staff – one of them working at passport control – all saying they could not understand why I had been denied boarding.” What possessed easyJet – and its bigger rival, Ryanair – to invent their own rules on passport validity, unfairly denying holidays to thousands of customers and laying themselves open to millions of pounds in claims, is anyone’s guess. The final rejection from easyJet to Tracey ended: “We do agree that this is not the outcome you would have anticipated, however, we need to adhere to our terms and conditions to be fair to each and every customer of ours.” To be fair to each and every customer, easyJet must now go back and check how many other passengers have been wrongly denied boarding on their holiday flight – and then refused the compensation due to them.