Ryanair Is Upsetting Customers By Taking Away One Boarding Feature That Many People Rely On

It's fair to say that Europe's largest airline group is used to the odd bit of controversy. Recently, the powers that be at Ryanair went public with news of increased bonuses for staff who pick up on oversized carry-on baggage at boarding. Before that, there were rumors that the airline had started deliberately splitting up groups across different rows in an effort to get more dollars from paid seating. And then there was the time they chopped down how long you had to check in before a flight — it's now a mere 24 hours prior to departure, or you'll pay a fee!

Well, they've gone and done it again, and this time they're coming for your boarding passes. Yep, the latest move by the long-running European low-coster means that only digital passes generated in the Ryanair app will be accepted for people looking to get on a flight. The move is primarily aimed at cutting paper wastage — a whopping 300 tons each year, apparently! They say it should also help passengers dodge nasty check-in fees by encouraging folks to sort their boarding passes before getting to the airport, though if you do forget to do that, then you could still be asked to pay some hefty change at the terminal.

The thing is, Ryanair has never been ashamed of pursuing cost-cutting features. This is a company that's famed for its brutal social media takedowns of complaining customers, after all. Even Euro travel guru extraordinaire Rick Steves warned people to be cautious when using budget carriers for their addition of extra fees and whatnot. So, it's just business as usual, right? Maybe, but it's causing a bit of a stir in the aviation community, that's for sure!

There's been quite the reaction to the paper-ditching move by Ryanair. Much of it focuses on the fact that the new rules will essentially demand that every passenger has access to, and knows how to use, a smartphone. Some have flat-out accused the carrier of discriminating against older passengers who might not be so tech savvy.

Others are concerned about putting all their proverbial eggs in one basket. As one Redditor puts it: "Phones run out of battery, phones know about gravity – fall and smash. Paper doesn't suffer from this." So, what if you do everything correctly and the tech itself fails? Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary has the answer. He says paper passes will be issued for people who lose or damage their phone on the way to the airport, and there are other details that will ensure you can board the plane if the battery dies while in the departure lounge, though all that relies on people having checked in beforehand.

It hardly looks like any of this will dent Ryanair's ambitions. The company is expected to serve a mega 215 million passengers by 2027, up from a target of 200 million in 2025. The price is also right — stats show that Ryanair has the lowest overall average airfare on the continent. And there are some tempting new routes on the way, like the link from Birmingham to Rome, the best place to kick off an Italian vacation, or the opening of a base in Tirana, Europe's "funkiest" capital city.