Copyright walesonline
Ryanair is making a huge change for every passenger within 2 weeks - and concerns have been raise some passengers will be caught out. Travellers will not be allowed to use printed boarding passes from Wednesday November 12 and will have to present a digital boarding pass in the “myRyanair” app to check in instead. The airline, which estimates 80% of its 200 million passengers already use this system, hopes to save more than 300 tonnes of paper waste each year and deliver a better experience for customers. Worries have been voiced that this could impact older individuals who may not be tech-savvy or even own smartphones. At the moment, customers can download the app and use a digital pass or print out a paper boarding pass at home. If they want to pick up a paper copy at the airport, they are charged a £20 fee. For those worried about what happens if your phone dies, Ryanair told consumer champion Which? staff would on hand to help at the gate. Customers in this situation would have their details cross-checked and validated against the flight manifest and be boarded as normal, the airline previously said. Alicia Hempsted, travel insurance expert at MoneySuperMarket, said: “While in some senses this is great news, when it comes to cutting down on unnecessary waste and avoiding check-in fees, having a strict no boarding card policy means travellers need to be prepared to go digital. “If you’re used to printing off your boarding pass, make sure you’ve downloaded the Ryanair app and followed the steps to download your digital pass, or you could face delays when you get to the airport.” In a recent Parliamentary written question, Liberal Democrat MP Ian Sollom asked Secretary of State for Transport Heidi Alexander: “With reference to the Consumer Rights Act 2015, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of Ryanair’s proposed requirement for all passengers to have digital boarding passes on (a) pensioners and (b) other passengers who do not possess a smartphone.” Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary dismissed these concerns last month as “patronising”, arguing that older people will adapt to digital boarding passes. During a press conference, the forthright CEO stated, “I’m old, and I travel with Ryanair on a very, very regular basis, and I use the Ryanair app; it is pretty simple, pretty easy to use. “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.” Transport Parliamentary Under-Secretary Keir Mather responded, stating that charges must be reasonable and noted: “Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, airlines must ensure that their terms and conditions are fair, transparent, and do not place certain consumers at an unfair disadvantage. The CAA is responsible for ensuring airline compliance with the Consumer Rights Act 2015. “The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) conducted a review of airline contract terms in 2019, including those relating to online check-in and the issuing of boarding passes. The review concluded that while online check-in requirements can be legitimate, such terms must be clearly communicated and any associated fees should be proportionate. “Ryanair continues to require all passengers to check in online. According to their new digital boarding pass policy, passengers without access to a smartphone can obtain a boarding pass for free at the airport as long as they have checked-in online.” Ryanair has announced: “Ryanair are moving to 100% Digital Boarding Passes (DBP) from 12 Nov 2025. This means from Wed 12 Nov, all passengers will receive a DBP to their Ryanair App when they check-in online as paper boarding passes will no longer be issued. Online check-in can be completed on Ryanair.com or on the Ryanair App.” The airline believes this change will reduce airport costs and fares for all passengers, provide a ‘better service (including flight info) for customers on day of travel’, enhance customer service and re-booking during flight disruptions, and is more environmentally friendly, claiming it eliminates 300 tonnes of paper annually. Dennis Reed, director of Silver Voices, has criticised Ryanair for trying to “cut costs and cut corners without caring about the impact on their customers. “He remarked: “It’s a disgraceful move. They are effectively saying they don’t want older people as passengers. There’s a strong argument to say that it’s discriminatory. “”This is going to cause chaos. If somebody goes to the airport to catch a Ryanair flight without the app, what are they going to do? Turn them away? “It’s also going to isolate older people from society, which is what businesses that go completely digital do. “”I really would urge them to reconsider. I, for one, will not be flying with Ryanair, and I would urge other people to take the same action. “. Meanwhile the pound has taken a tumble and is now at a near two-and-a-half-year low against the euro. A pound currently buys €1.1345, a low not seen since May 2023. It’s bad news for those going on a half-term break to one of the 20 euro countries. A pound now goes less far and goods have become slightly more expensive. It’s down to a mix of the European economies doing well and US interest rates coming down. Sterling values dropped against the dollar, too, as the world’s reserve currency was strengthened by the announcement of cheaper borrowing from the US central bank.
