Travel Question of the Day: Simon Calder on passport requirements for the Canary Islands

Have a travel question that needs answering? Ask our travel expert Simon Calder

The Canary Islands are as much part of Europe as Crawley (Katie Collins, PA)

Every day, our travel correspondent Simon Calder tackles readers' questions. Just email yours to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder

Q My husband has four months left on his passport and we fly to Fuerteventura next week. Will we be OK?

Isabel Rogers

A I’m happy to say your husband’s passport is valid in the EU, including Spain, up to and including the date of expiry.

I get an average of two questions a week on the same subject, and I have made it my life’s mission to track down whoever is spreading needless alarm that passports have to be valid for six extra months for the Canaries. There is one sense in which the Canary Islands, including Fuerteventura, are different from the rest of Spain: customs rules on duty, which is why you can by limited quantities of duty-free alcohol and tobacco at very low prices at Canaries airports. But in every other respect, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Tenerife and all the other lovely Canary Islands are as much part of Europe as Calais. Or Crawley.

In the extremely unlikely event that the airline raises an issue, tell them the Foreign Office says: "Your passport should be valid for the proposed duration of your stay; you don’t need any additional period of validity on your passport beyond this. This applies to the whole of Spain, including the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands (Majorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera).”

And then tell me so I can take it up with the airline.