Inadmissibility due to airline foul-up
I recently bought a ticket from London to Gibraltar to which a UK passport gives the right to stay for a long period of time. Gibraltar is tricky to fly to, and requires special training to land at. Airline lacked flight crew with suitable training and announced prior to boarding it would fly to Malaga airport in Spain.
My UK passport would normally let me in to Spain without a problem but I was inadmissible due to having used up my stay allowance in the Schengen area. Other pax who had a visa for Gibraltar but needed and lacked a visa to Schengen/Spain were denied boarding by handling agent in London.
Handling agent at London, despite prodding from me, saw only a passport which would normally grant entry without a visa and didn't care about Schengen stay allowance; flight crew after some dialogue understood the issue after the aircraft doors were opened in Malaga, Spain.
The weather was good in both Gibraltar and Malaga and en route. The aircraft had no technical issues. Fuel should not have been an issue. Airline declined to provide proof of reason for divert as they wanted to record it as operational issues and avoid EU261 liability to offloaded pax.
I was fortunate that arrival immigration at Malaga did not know or did not care about a potential overstay and let me in without questions. If they had refused entry, who is liable for the cost of my return to original airport and any inadmissibility fine ? Can the airline claim the costs back from me as a passenger when the divert is due to lack of suitably trained flight crew and announced just before boarding ?
Last edited by davidjohnson6; 26th Oct 2023 at 06:08.