‘They are effectively saying they don’t want older people as passengers,’ one campaign group fumed. ‘There’s a strong argument that it’s discriminatory.’
The budget airline has been slammed for its ‘discrimination’ against older passengers (Image: Getty)
Budget airline Ryanair has been accused of “discriminating” against older passengers by scrapping paper boarding passes in favour of digital tickets. The major shake-up will take effect in November and could see 40 million passengers forced to download tickets on their mobile phones. It will see the major airline become the first in Europe to roll-out a complete ban on paper passes, with a digital-only model taking effect on November 12.
Ryanair said that customers will “no longer be able to download a physical paper boarding pass” beyond that date, and will instead need to “use the digital boarding passs generated in their ‘myRyanair’ app during check-in to board their flight”. Dennis Reed, director of the over-sixties campaign group Silver Voices, has slammed the change as “disgraceful” and accused Michael O’Leary‘s low-cost flier of aiming to “cut costs and cut corners without caring about the impact on their customers”.
The director of an over-sixties lobby group has vowed to boycott the airline (Image: Getty)
“They are effectively saying they don’t want older people as passengers,” Mr Reed told The Telegraph. “There’s a strong argument to say it’s discriminatory.
“This is going to cause chaos. If somebody goes to the airport to catch a Ryanair flight without the app, what are they going to do? Turn them away?”
“It’s going to isolate older people from society, which is what businesses that go completely digital do,” he warned. “I really would urge them to reconsider. I, for one, will nto be flying with Ryanair and I would urge other people to take the same action.”
Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, suggested there should “always be an alternative way of booking and showing tickets that does not disadvantage those who aren’t online”.
Ryanair has maintained that almost 80% of its over 206 million customers already use digital boarding passes and that the upcoming move follows a similar successful shift in other industries including festivals, music and sport events.
The airline’s chief marketing officer Dara Brady said: “To ensure a seamless transition to 100% digital boarding passes for our customers, we will make the switch from Wednesday, November 12, which is traditionally a slightly quieter time for travel following the busy mid-term break period.
“Ryanair’s move to 100% digital boarding passes will mean a faster, smarter and greener travel experience for our customers, streamlined through our best-in-class ‘myRyanair’ app, where passengers will also benefit from helpful in-app featres, like Order to Seat and live flight information.”
