A young mum was barred from boarding a holiday flight with her three-year-old daughter - because there was a tear in her passport.

Hayley Lewis, 28, was about to embark on daughter Sydney's first-ever flight along with other family members when an airport worker refused to let her pass.

They suggested the ripped page in her passport could be an attempt to hide a stamp from a suspicious country - and she was escorted off the premises.