Low-cost carrier Ryanair is to start charging online check-in passengers for its priority-boarding service.
Until now, passengers checking in online had enjoyed free priority boarding, but from June 3 they will be charged £4 for the service, the same as those checking in at the airport.
The carrier says that the move is being made to ensure there is sufficient priority-boarding tickets for those wishing to purchase them at the airport. A spokesperson for Ryanair said: “Because of the success of our web check-in facility, many flights are now selling out all of our allocation of 80 priority-boarding seats (40 per cent).
“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, this is at odds with a statement made by the airline just a few months ago (see online news January 23), in which the carrier said it remained “determined to encourage more and more passengers to travel with carry-on luggage only, which allows them to use our free web check-in, skip airport queues and enjoy our priority-boarding service free of charge”.
Rivals Easyjet recently launched its Easyjet Plus card, allowing members to benefit from “speedy boarding” on all flights, for a one-off fee of £100. Easyjet said that at present 99 per cent of its flights fell under its target limit of 30 passengers using the priority-boarding service, although it said that if necessary, it might look to cap the service later this year in favour of Easyjet Plus members (see online news March 13).
For more information visit ryanair.co.uk, easyjet.com.
Report by Mark Caswell
