A major airline has officially scrapped printed boarding passes. Here's how it's going
Ryanair is hailing the first day of the digital-only boarding pass (DBP) initiative as a "huge success".
The Irish carrier has scrapped printed boarding passes, forcing all passengers to check-in using their smartphones.
The low-budget airline said up until 1pm (local time), more than 700 flights across Europe had departed without any disruption and 98 per cent of passengers had used the DBP.
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Could this be the beginning of the end of paper boarding passes? Getty
The 2 per cent who hadn't had already checked in online before arriving at the airport, so they were given printed boarding passes for free.
Any passengers who don't check-in online face a £55 ($110) charge at the check-in desk.
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In a statement, Ryanair said there were one or two passengers who had a problem with their phone, but "they were boarded without difficulty as the boarding gates had their details from their online check-in".
Ryanair CMO, Dara Brady, was delighted with the process so far: "We estimate our DBP initiative will save up to €40M ($70M) annually, and this will help us to lower ticket prices and make air travel more competitive for Ryanair's customers."
The launch of the initiative was timed to start at a less busy travel period.
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Ryanair has kicked off its digital-only boarding pass initiative. Getty
The move to DBP had been branded "disgraceful" by those who thought it would negatively impact older travellers who may not have smartphones or may struggle with technology.
Earlier this year, Dennis Reed, director of Silver Voices, told The Telegraph Ryanair was cutting costs and corners "without caring about the impact on their customers".
"They are effectively saying they don't want older people as passengers. There's a strong argument to say that it's discriminatory."
The airline has previously said passengers who don't have a smartphone can ask a friend or family member to download the boarding pass for them.
Some airports in Morocco, Turkey and Albania are exempt as they only accept paper boarding passes.
This story was originally published by Stuff and has been reproduced here with permission.
