By Ben Hurst

Copyright belfastlive

Ryanair has announced the date it will transition to a completely digital check-in system, sparking concerns it could create pandemonium amongst certain travellers. The budget airline confirmed it will switch to 100% digital boarding passes from Wednesday, November 12, meaning passengers will no longer have the option to download and print physical paper boarding passes. Instead, flyers will be required to utilise the digital boarding pass created through the Ryanair mobile application. When questioned about criticism of the initiative from campaigners representing elderly passengers, Mr O’Leary addressed journalists in Dublin on Thursday, stating he was “amazed by the outrage”. The 64 year old commented: “I’m old, and I travel from Ryanair on a very, very regular basis, and I use the Ryanair app, it is pretty simple, pretty easy to use.”, reports Bristol Live . He assured that “nobody would be cut off at the knees” and promised the carrier would remain “reasonably forgiving” towards passengers arriving with paper boarding passes throughout the Christmas period and into January. “The critical thing: If you’ve checked online before you get there and you lose your phone, we’ll have your name in the system. “We will manually board you at the boarding gate so if your phone goes off, you lose your phone, your phone gets stolen, it is not going to make any issue as long as you checked in online before you got the boarding gate, which, by the way, would eliminate all the check-in fees at the airport.” Mr O’Leary, who revealed his 86 year old mother operates the Ryanair app, dismissed as a “myth” suggestions that elderly passengers couldn’t adapt to technological developments. “Actually, what you find is the old people firstly just get their kids or grandkids to make bookings for them, and then pretty quickly they’re adopting it themselves. “The people who jump first on every seat sale we run are old people. “They are the ones sitting there hovering. “They don’t go to concerts anymore but the minute there’s a seat sale on Ryanair they’re in like a bandit either on their laptop or on their mobile app. “And it is slightly patronising, this notion that old people can’t and won’t move to mobile technology or to the apps.” When questioned if he was only considering older people who already use the technology, Mr O’Leary responded: “No, I’m talking about older people who will have the app, if that’s the only way they can fly with Ryanair. “They will just convert and move because that’s what they do.”