Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, has provided an update regarding the airline’s decision to enforce the use of smartphone boarding passes. The largest budget airline in Europe, Ryanair, is set to discontinue the acceptance of paper boarding passes starting from November 3. Passengers will be required to display their boarding passes through the Ryanair mobile app instead.
This change is aimed at reducing airport check-in fees significantly and enabling direct updates from Ryanair’s operations center in case of disruptions. Ryanair estimates that this shift will save around 300 tons of paper annually. While there have been concerns raised about this transition, Mr. O’Leary has clarified the new procedures.
During an interview on The Independent’s daily travel podcast, Mr. O’Leary mentioned that the majority of passengers already use smartphones, and the airline aims to have all passengers adopt smartphone technology. He assured travelers that in case of a lost or dead phone, as long as they have completed online check-in beforehand, a paper boarding pass can be reissued at the airport free of charge.
Ryanair has announced that the current £20 fee for boarding pass re-issuance will be waived from November 3. However, certain countries like Morocco and Albania will still require passengers to carry printed boarding passes. Mr. O’Leary stated that an agreement has been made with Albanian authorities to go digital by March next year. For Morocco, where paper passes are mandatory, Ryanair will continue to accept them.
Ryanair has a history of encouraging online check-in by imposing additional fees for airport check-in. The fee varies across countries, with the current charge listed at €55 (£47), except for Austria at €40 (£34) and Spain at €30 (£26) respectively.
