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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
irishmirror.ie & Sophie Law

Edinburgh Airport blunder as Dublin passengers wrongly ordered to buy costly covid testing kits

Passengers flying into Edinburgh Airport were wrongly stung with hefty fees amid travel restriction confusion in Scotland.

All 36 arrivals on a flight from Dublin Airport were mistakenly asked to buy coronavirus test kits worth £210 by Border Force in a costly error with full refunds issued to each passenger.

Those flying on the Ryanair service, which arrived in Edinburgh on Friday 26 February, told officials that they did not need the testing kits because they had come from Ireland - a "common travel area", Dublin Live reports.

Under original Scottish Government guidance, travellers were told to take a test on the second and tenth day after arrival.

However, this was corrected to reflect that it did not apply to this group of fliers who had "travelled within the common travel area in the ten days before arriving in Scotland" according to The Scotsman.

The blunder was blamed by Edinburgh Airport on "inaccurate guidance" from the Scottish Government with the UK Government's Border Force apologising for the mistake.

A spokesman for Edinburgh Airport said the issue was "flagged with the Government who admitted information on the official website was inaccurate" before thanking the Government for their apology.

The Home Office said the incident was a one-off and also apologised for the error.

They added that Border Force took "swift action" to correct the mistake and that full refunds were provided.

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