CONSUMER REPRESENTATIVES have strongly criticised a decision by the budget airline Ryanair to begin charging customers €5 for priority boarding passes. These have previously been free of charge when booked online.
In a move which the company claimed would make the sale of priority boarding passes “fairer for all passengers” – but which others believe is aimed at maximising profits – Ryanair said the charges would apply to all booking made on or after June 3rd.
“Because of the success of our web check-in facility many flights are now selling out all of our allocation of 80 of priority boarding seats,” a spokeswoman for the company said.
“By charging the same fee for priority boarding for both web check-in and airport check-in passengers, we hope to ensure that priority boarding seats will always be available for sale at airports for family members and groups who wish to purchase it.”
However, Dermott Jewell, chief executive of the Consumers’ Association of Ireland said it represented “just another example of the determination of Ryanair to take profit at any opportunity”.
“I wish they’d just say that, rather than putting forward this sort of spin,” he said. “I think we have got to acknowledge once and for all that the whole structure of pricing has changed.”
He noted that Ryanair was not alone among airlines in its attempts to find new ways of “charging customers for everything”.
“The price of a flight is arguably now your least concern,” he said. “It is the add-on charges for things such as baggage, and now priority boarding cards . . . all the airlines appear to be doing is trying to outdo each other in how quickly, how fast they can find new charges.”
He called for a return to a system whereby airlines such as Ryanair “offer you a seat on a plane for x amount.”
Up until now, Ryanair passengers availing of airport check-in have paid £4 or €5 for priority boarding on Ryanair flights. But those who check in online could do so free of charge in a concession which Ryanair said was aimed at promoting online check-in.
Under the new rules, however, web check-in passengers will pay the same £4/€5 fee paid by airport check-in passengers for priority boarding.
Ryanair also plans to introduce an online name change facility from June 3rd, which it says will allow passengers to make name changes up to 24 hours before travel. “This service was previously only available through the Ryanair call centre,” it said.