RYANAIR UPDATE - from Simon Calder, The Independent
In 2025, Mr O’Leary is still in charge. Ryanair has grown from a small, loss-making Irish airline to become
Europe’s biggest and most profitable budget carrier. The CEO did not get where
he is today by indulging passengers who fail to comply with his airline’s
policies. Passengers are warned to check-in online or pay an airport fee of £55. And this week Mr
O’Leary announced a crackdown on passengers whose hand luggage breaches the
maximum dimensions for a free bag (which, as I reported last month, have just increased to 40 x 30 x 20cm). Ground staff
will earn €2.50 (£2.25) each time they identify a rogue bag – for which the
traveller can pay £60 or abandon their trip. The airline boss told me
passengers get cheesed off when they see others “scamming the system”, for
example by lugging a rucksack on board. The incentive must increase, he says,
because the campaign against excessive cabin baggage has proved so successful
that fewer and fewer passengers are getting caught.
The Ryanair boss also gave me the inside story on the airline’s
plan for all passengers to use boarding passes on smartphones rather than
paper. From 3 November, the 200 million-plus annual passengers will be expected
to check in using the airline’s app, and to present a pass on their smartphones
at the departure gate. Ryanair hopes for smoother boarding and easier
management of disruption, as well as saving an estimated 300 tonnes of paper
each year. What if your phone battery runs out? No problem, says Michael
O'Leary. If you have checked in online in advance, the airline will provide a
boarding pass at the airport. The same applies for people without smartphones:
friends or family can check them in online, and Ryanair staff will help out at
the airport.
