O’Leary defends switch to digital boarding passes

It is “patronising” to suggest older people will not migrate to digital boarding passes, Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has said.

The airline said it will move to 100% digital boarding passes from Wednesday November 12, in a move that will mean passengers will no longer be able to download and print a physical paper boarding pass but will instead need to use the digital boarding pass generated in the Ryanair app.

Asked about criticism of the scheme from advocates for older people, Mr O’Leary told reporters in Dublin on Thursday that he was “amazed by the outrage”.

The 64-year-old said: “I’m old, and I travel from Ryanair on a very, very regular basis, and I use the Ryanair app, it is pretty simple, pretty easy to use.”

He said “nobody would be cut off at the knees” and the airline would be “reasonably forgiving” of people showing up with paper boarding passes through Christmas and into January.

“The critical thing: If you’ve checked online before you get there and you lose your phone, we’ll have your name in the system.

“We will manually board you at the boarding gate so if your phone goes off, you lose your phone, your phone gets stolen, it is not going to make any issue as long as you checked in online before you got the boarding gate, which, by the way, would eliminate all the check-in fees at the airport.”

Mr O’Leary, who said his 86-year-old mother uses the Ryanair app, claimed it was a “myth” that older people could not transition to changes in technology.

“Actually, what you find is the old people firstly just get their kids or grandkids to make bookings for them, and then pretty quickly they’re adopting it themselves.

“The people who jump first on every seat sale we run are old people.

“They are the ones sitting there hovering.

“They don’t go to concerts anymore but the minute there’s a seat sale on Ryanair they’re in like a bandit either on their laptop or on their mobile app.

“And it is slightly patronising, this notion that old people can’t and won’t move to mobile technology or to the apps.”

Pressed on whether he was only considering older people who already use the technology, Mr O’Leary replied: “No, I’m talking about older people who will have the app, if that’s the only way they can fly with Ryanair.

“They will just convert and move because that’s what they do.”