Copyright Ars Technica
Ryanair is trying to force users to download its mobile app by eliminating paper boarding passes, starting on November 12. As announced in February and subsequently delayed from earlier start dates, Europe’s biggest airline is moving to digital-only boarding passes, meaning customers will no longer be able to print physical ones. In order to access their boarding passes, Ryanair flyers will have to download Ryanair’s app. “Almost 100 percent of passengers have smartphones, and we want to move everybody onto that smartphone technology,” Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said recently on The Independent’s daily travel podcast. Customers are encouraged to check in online via Ryanair’s website or app before getting to the airport. People who don’t check in online before getting to the airport will have to pay the airport a check-in fee. Further explaining the change, O’Leary said, per a Monday report from The Telegraph: They will still, as they are today, be paying the airport check-in fee [of £55, equal to about $72]. And they know that they have to check in the day before, because we send them SMS messages and two email confirmations, 48 hours before departure and 24 hours before departure. So anybody who shows up not having checked in before they get to the airport? Either they’re stupid or they just ignored our email instructions. In a September press release, Ryanair CMO Dara Brady claimed that ditching paper boarding passes would lead to “faster, smarter, and greener” travel. Ryanair’s September announcement added that “almost 80 percent of Ryanair’s 206M+ passengers already use digital boarding passes. Ryanair’s move to 100 percent digital boarding passes from Nov 12th follows other key tickets industries (like festivals, music, and sport events) which have successfully switched to digital-only ticketing.” The policy change is also meant to get people to do more with Ryanair’s app, like order food and drinks, view real-time flight information, and receive notifications during delays. Brady said Ryanair selected the November 12 start date because it’s during what is “traditionally a slightly quieter time for travel following the busy mid-term break period.” Inconvenience preparing for takeoff Eliminating paper boarding passes may create numerous inconveniences. To start, not everyone wants Ryanair’s app on their personal device. And many future customers, especially those who don’t fly with Ryanair frequently or who don’t fly much at all, may be unaware of the change, creating confusion during travel, which can already be inherently stressful. Also, there are places where Ryanair flies that don’t accept digital boarding passes, including some airports in Albania and Morocco. In these instances, Ryanair still requires online check-ins (either via Ryanair’s website or app), and then the airline will provide paper boarding passes. People who are less technically savvy or who don’t have a smart device or whose device has died won’t be completely out of luck. Ryanair says it will accommodate people without access to a smartphone with “a free of charge boarding pass at the airport” if they’ve checked in online “before arriving at the airport.” “Nobody’s going to get stranded. Nobody’s going to get left behind,” O’Leary said, per The Telegraph. Despite this, some travel experts are worried about potential chaos. “There will be absolute havoc when that takes effect,” Irish travel commentator Eoghan Corry told RSVP Live in January. Ryanair will be the first airline to do away with paper boarding passes. It already has a history with being on the ground floor of controversial digital-forward policies. Ryanair was the first airline to require people to check in online in advance or else pay a fee, as noted by The Independent. “There’ll be some teething problems,” O’Leary said of moving to digital-only boarding passes.
