European budget airline Ryanair has become the world’s first airline to refuse boarding passes printed on paper. Since Nov 12 the airlines requires passengers to check in and board using digital devices.

Despite some passengers still showing up to airports with print-outs of their boarding passes, Europe’s largest carrier has announced that passengers must use a digital device to board.

Since many inexperienced travellers feel reassured by having a piece of paper with their name, QR code and seat number printed on it, the first announcements of the Irish airline’s new approach sparked protest.

Critics have questioned if less tech-savvy people or those without smartphones would be excluded from flying. According to the airline, around one in five passengers still aren’t using digital boarding passes.

“Mobility must not be tied to the technical skills or the technical or actual possibilities of travellers. There must be no exclusion of individual groups,” said passenger rights officer Andre Duderstaedt from Germany’s Federation of Consumer Organisations (VZBV).

If disabled people are affected, he said they could invoke equal treatment law with good prospects.

The company is seeking to allay concerns and has postponed the originally planned May launch of its new policy to the quieter month of November.

Instead of just under 20 million passengers in May 2025, only just over 13 million are likely to be flying with the Irish carrier in the cooler autumn month.

Potential problems with the new policy can be solved more easily when airports are less crowded. In the current financial year, the airline expects a record 207 million passengers.

Ryanair says it aims to become the world’s first paperless airline. Electronic boarding passes could avoid more than 300 tonnes of waste per year, it said.

Although some airlines now charge fees for a desk check-in at the airport as opposed to an online check-in, rival airlines like easyJet, British Airways and Lufthansa accept both digital and paper boarding passes equally.

No way around the app

A central pillar of the digital strategy is the Ryanair smartphone app. For customers, it is to become the only way to generate a boarding pass in the electronic check-in process.

The company says its shift to digital-only is part of efforts to eliminate paper waste and to keep passengers better informed with status updates through its app.

But the policy change also brings significant business benefits for Ryanair. The airline is keen to funnel customers into its app. Until now, if you booked a ticket on a different platform, you could easily ignore the Ryanair app and its offers to sell you food and drink on the plane, extra luggage, a rental car or travel insurance.

Now, without an electronic boarding pass on a smartphone, passengers will not be able to pass airport security or board an aircraft.

According to the airline, more than 80% of guests already use electronic boarding passes. Chief executive officer Michael O’Leary said he expects most of the remaining passengers also carry a smartphone on flights, but have not used it for boarding.

Even in the new system, the app is not mandatory for every traveller. A lead booker can display electronic boarding passes for a group or forward them individually to fellow travellers’ smartphones.

In an interview with the British newspaper The Independent, O’Leary promised free assistance at the airport for all passengers, provided they are checked in.

“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.”

A company spokesman also advised that passengers without a smartphone should get help from friends or relatives for check-in.

Anyone who ignores all warnings and repeated reminders to check in online may find a last and costly resort at the airport to obtain a (printed) boarding pass and thus get on board: “In this case you must pay the airport check-in fee,” the Ryanair website notes.

Depending on the country of departure that is €30 (RM143) for Spain, €40 (RM191) for Austria or €55/£55 (RM263/RM298) for rest of the EU and Britain per passenger per flight.

The previous €20 (RM96) fee for reprinting an already issued boarding pass will be scrapped.

Ryanair will therefore not be entirely paperless, even after the boarding pass reform. – dpa