Family wins €4,872 after EasyJet blocks flight over expired child passport
A French family has won compensation after being denied boarding on an EasyJet flight because their child’s passport had expired. The case centred on a rarely used 1957 agreement allowing travel with expired passports under certain conditions. The airline’s refusal led to a lengthy legal battle, culminating in a ruling against EasyJet. The incident began on October 20, 2018, when the family tried to board an EasyJet flight from Lyon to Naples. Staff refused them because their minor child’s French passport had expired 18 days earlier. As a result, the family travelled to Italy by coach instead and later filed a claim for reimbursement of plane tickets, coach fares, and hotel costs.
The family argued that the 1957 European Agreement on the movement of persons permitted French nationals to travel with an expired passport, provided it was less than five years out of date. This agreement, signed by Council of Europe member states, takes precedence over the stricter 2004 EU directive on free movement. France’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, had already upheld this principle in a 2020 ruling. The case reached the Court of Cassation again on November 15, 2023, when it overturned a lower court’s decision and sent the matter to the Lyon Judicial Court. On February 26, 2026, the Lyon court ruled in the family’s favour. It declared EasyJet’s boarding refusal unjustified and ordered the airline to pay €4,872 in damages and legal costs.
The ruling confirms that French citizens can travel to certain European countries, including Italy, with an expired passport if it is less than five years old. EasyJet must now compensate the family for their expenses. The decision reinforces the legal weight of the 1957 agreement over later EU regulations in such cases.
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