Ryanair is phasing out paper boarding passes with passengers soon expected to present their pass from the digital app. The airline has now issued guidance to ease the concerns of passengers.
Ryanair will only accept digitial boarding passes from Monday, November 3, meaning passengers must check-in online before departure. They said the move will “eliminate almost all airport check-in fees”. It will also allow “direct updates from Ryanair’s operations centre during disruption”. Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said: “Between 85 and 90% of passengers show up with smartphones. Almost 100% of passengers have smartphones, and we want to move everybody onto that the smartphone technology.
“The big concern that people have is: ‘What happens if I lose my battery or whatever I lose my phone?’
“If you lose your phone, no issue. As long as you’ve checked in before you got to the airport, we’ll reissue a paper boarding pass at the airport free of charge. But you have to have checked in before you got to the airport.”
O’Leary added: “Also, if your battery dies or something happens, once you’ve checked in, we’ll have your sequence number anyway at the boarding gate, we’ll take you you’ll get on. So nobody should worry about it.
“Just make sure you check in online before you get to the airport and then all will be fine.”
Passengers can access their boarding pass via ‘My Bookings’ on the Ryanair.com website or the Ryanair App. If you have checked in online and forgot your boarding pass, you can access it at any time in the Ryanair app.
Ryanair hopes to save around 300 tonnes of paper every year by making the change. However, some countries are still insisting on paper boarding passes, including Morocco and Albania.
If you depart from a Moroccan airport or are flying from Tirana to the UK, a digital boarding pass will not be accepted. You must instead carry a physical print out of your boarding pass.
