An island resident was denied boarding onto an EasyJet flight because the staff member at the desk refused to accept his Isle of Man version of the NHS Covid Pass.

Thomas Carruthers had been on holiday with his 11-year-old son, and had no problems flying into Spain with the Isle of Man Covid Pass, which he was carrying in paper format and certified his vaccination status.

The problem was when they were not allowed to board their return flight from Alicante to Bristol.

To get out of Spain that same day, he quickly booked onto a Jet2 flight to Manchester instead – whose check-in desk staff had no problems accepting his Isle of Man Covid pass.

They had been lucky to get on this Jet2 flight, and were only able to because they took the place of two no-shows.

However, they were then ‘stranded’ upon getting to Manchester, until getting on a LoganAir flight the next evening – which cost around £350.

He said that his son, Scott, was very worried about being stuck without any accommodation, to the point that his older brother was considering driving down from where he lives in Scotland to come and get the two of them.

‘I’ve not long since had a heart attack, and my blood pressure’s meant to stay dead low,’ Mr Carruthers added.

It is understood that the Isle of Man Government has not been aware of any issues with EasyJet flights and Isle of Man resident Covid passes.

Mr Carruthers, who lives in Union Mills, alleged that the EasyJet desk staff, whom he presumed to be a senior member of staff after seeing her training others – claimed to have called UK immigration to check, and then told him that his Isle of Man Covid pass was ‘not valid’.

‘This was big lie number one,’ said Mr Carruthers.

When contacted by the Examiner, EasyJet admitted that this is where a mistake had occurred – when staff in Alicante were incorrectly told that the Isle of Man documents were not valid.

A statement provided by the airline to the Examiner read: ‘We are very sorry that Mr Carruthers was incorrectly denied boarding on his flight from Alicante to Manchester.

‘This was due to a misunderstanding at the gate of the travel documentation checks required for travel to the UK using an Isle of Man Covid vaccine pass.

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‘We understand that the gate staff checked at the time with UK immigration and were incorrectly advised that the document wasn’t valid for travel.’

It continued: ‘We are in touch with Mr Carruthers to apologise for the error and to reimburse him in full for their alternative travel expenses.

‘We have also reviewed the relevant travel document requirements with our ground handling provider at Alicante airport to ensure this does not occur in future.’

The ability of Manx residents to use a version of the NHS Covid pass was organised in a deal between the Isle of Man and the UK government last August. Manx passes are therefore valid in the UK, and in digital form should allow for seamless travel across the EU as well.

One point in the government’s recent ‘moving to an endemic approach’ pandemic strategy was to ensure that Manx residents would continue their own version of the UK NHS Covid Pass, so that they were ‘not disadvantaged’ when it came to international travel.

Mr Carruthers had initially contacted one of his MHKs, Jane Poole-Wilson (also Minister for Home Affairs), who directed him to the Department for Enterprise.

He told the department that his concerns were not just about financial compensation, but that this exact same thing could happen to other Manx residents attempting to travel the same route – wanting to know what the government would do to prevent this happening again in the future.

Mr Carruthers asked if the DfE would contact EasyJet to ask them to confirm or deny whether or not his Manx Care vaccination certificate was ‘not worth the paper it is written on’.

The DfE said that enterprise minister Alex Allinson was ‘sorry to hear’ that he had run into these problems, but ‘unfortunately, however, this is not a matter for the department’. It advised him to lodge a complaint with EasyJet and seek advice from his travel insurance provider.

‘But that’s not the point, because I could go back there [to Alicante] tomorrow and the same would happen,’ Mr Carruthers said.

‘Or it could be someone else from the island.’

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‘The Isle of Man Government just wiped their hands of it, they’re not interested,’ Mr Carruthers told the Examiner.

‘I thought I would get some support because of the fact that EasyJet are a licensed transport [carrier] from the island, but there’s been no support from the government whatsoever’.

He added that he would not travel with EasyJet in the future if it could be avoided, but ‘unfortunately sometimes you’re limited in choice when it comes to certain routes’.