As Ryanair prepares to scrap print-at-home boarding passes this week, passengers who fail to check in online are either ‘stupid or have ignored email instructions,’ according to the airline’s boss, Michael O’Leary.
From tomorrow (12 November), the low-cost carrier will stop issuing physical passes in favour of asking flyers to download digital passes on to their phones.
The move means passengers will no longer be able to download and print a copy of their boarding pass, and will instead have to use the digital boarding pass created by the myRyanair app after check-in.
Ryanair says the transition will improve the customer experience, as O’Leary says between 85 and 90 per cent of passengers ‘show up with smartphones’.
He added: ‘Almost 100 per cent of passengers have smartphones, and we want to move everybody onto that the smartphone technology.’
But some charities oppose the shift – warning that digital-only flying will create challenges for older passengers and other individuals who may struggle with tech and smart devices.
Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, told The Telegraph that ‘companies must not forget the four million people who have never used the internet and the many others with limited digital skills who do not have a smartphone’.
She further added that alternative booking methods and ways of showing tickets should be offered to those who ‘aren’t online.’
As Ryanair prepares to scrap print-at-home passes this week, passengers who fail to check in online are either ‘stupid or have ignored email instructions,’ according to the airline’s boss, Michael O’Leary (pictured)
Some charities oppose the shift – warning that digital-only flying will create challenges for older passengers and other individuals who may struggle with tech and smart devices (stock images)
But O’Leary maintains the change will not negatively affect specific groups of passengers – so as long as they’re able to check-in online in advance.
He claims a ‘vast number of over 50-year-olds’ have smartphones, a figure he is sure of because 90 per cent of Ryanair passengers are ‘already using smartphones and digital boarding passes’.
For passengers who do not own or operate a smartphone, O’Leary assured that ‘nobody will get stranded’ – on the basis they check-in online before going to the airport, where they’ll be able to pick up a boarding pass, free of charge.
As for passengers who fail to check-in online before arriving at the airport, O’Leary says their error will come at a price – a £55 fee, to be exact.
He told The Telegraph: ‘They will still, as they are today, be paying the airport check-in fee. 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.’
It comes after O’Leary defended the transition in September – claiming his 86-year-old mum uses the app, and further alleged it was a ‘myth’ that older people could not transition to changes in technology.
The 64-year-old said: ‘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.’
But O’Leary maintains the change will not negatively affect specific groups of passengers – so as long as they’re able to check-in online in advance
He said: ‘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.
‘And it is slightly patronising, this notion that old people can’t and won’t move to mobile technology or to the apps.’
He said ‘nobody would be cut off at the knees’ and the airline would be ‘reasonably forgiving’ of people showing up with paper boarding passes through Christmas and into January.
O’Leary added: ‘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.’
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