Can Ryanair see the wood from the trees?

Sep 6, 2012

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Ryanair have attracted some (presumably welcome..at least we are talking about them) attention recently for their policy of charging €60 if you turn up without a printed boarding pass.

Let’s leave aside that row. Ryanair are good at taking you cheaply and on time to a destination airport, sometimes even one that is remotely near where you were going. And they are very good at publicity, They should turn this row to their advantage.

I’m 2011 they carried 76m passengers. That’s a lot of printed boarding passes. The boarding passes are used for the airline as a passenger control method, and the relevant information for them is on the barcode. That’s why they scan it.

Scrap them. Make people show (as I have done in the uk and US and in Europe) a mobile device such as a phone, iPad or kindle. 76m sheets of paper mounts up to perhaps 10,000 trees. Charge people who DO turn up with printed pass, as after all it costs to dispose of the waste paper.

More trees…good. Cheaper flights…good. Favourable publicity for a change for Ryanair…good.

Comments

7 responses to “Can Ryanair see the wood from the trees?”

Fergus O’Rourke

September 6, 2012

And the people who don’t own such devices will have to buy them. More sales for Apple etc – winners all round ! (Some economists refer to this kind of thing as “stimulus”.)

Of course, a penalty will have to be found for the cretins who lose, have stolen, or simply forget to bring, their device. About €60, probably 🙂

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1. brianmlucey
  
  September 6, 2012
  
  If you know someone who doesn’t have a mobile phone, good for you.
  
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Gavin Tonks

September 6, 2012

Only people with a 3rd generation phone would be able to do this. Good idea but its floored. My Mum’s Nokia 3310 certainly wont have this function unless you can make a barcode out of Snake 2 ?

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1. Gavin Tonks
  
  September 6, 2012
  
  ‘Flawed’ before somebody rips my spelling apart
  
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AL

September 6, 2012

bad publicity?

an idiot can’t be bothered to print boarding passes and gets appropriately punished.. who would admit to being so stupid.

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Delarivier

September 7, 2012

There’s a kiosk in Terminal 2 in Dublin Airport that will print out a 1 page boarding pass for 60 cents. Problem solved (assuming the machine is working!)
The electronic idea is a good one, but it probably wouldn’t work with my ancient Nokia mobile!

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Eric

September 10, 2012

Out of all the things Ryanair does which attracts such negative publicity, many of them rightly so, I just don’t have an issue with the boarding card. €60 is probably a bit too much but if someone cannot be bothered/ have the cop on to print the boarding card, then maybe its safer they don’t leave the country.
E-tickets is definitely an option to look at, even at a European level. Could save alot of unnecessary waste. Although they do use them to tally with their print out and head count…..”to be sure to be effin’ sure” as Mick O’Leary might say.

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