Ryanair tries forcing app downloads by eliminating paper boarding passes

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.”