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Ryanair passengers latest to become advertising mules

18 December 2009
By Paul Smith

Hats off to Ryanair for not only jumping on a British Airways initiative, but making it sound like a genuine benefit to passengers. The budget airline is to display third party advertising on its boarding cards from early 2010 - a move British Airways announced in August.

Bitterwallet - Ryanair introduces advertising on boarding passesNow there's nothing necessarily wrong with whoring white space on boarding passes for money. It creates another revenue stream and doesn't cause passengers any ills - we're already exposed to hundreds of advertising messages a day so another makes no odds. Ryanair has seen an idea, liked it and copied it and there's no reason why they shouldn't. But don't pretend we'll enjoy it - that's just taking the piss:

This will allow advertisers to reach the 66 million Ryanair passengers that will print their boarding cards from the comfort of their own home next year.

That's right - not only has Ryanair handed over the cost of producing boarding cards to the customer, but they've also passed on their advertiser's production costs too - and it's all for you to enjoy "in the comfort of your own home". It's surprising that Ryanair didn't announce an additional tax for any lack of dissatisfaction achieved during the printing process. Cheers, Sky Marshall!

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27 comments

  • The B.
    Simple, do a print screen, cut and paste it and then print, no advertising, or even better, don't fly with Wild West Airlines aka Ryanair.
    Reply ·
  • ads p.
    Deface the advert and place them behinf the trays ready for the next poor mug to fly Lyanair or just throw them on the floor as they leave the plane. Ruin the advertisers and Lyanair reputation!!!
    Reply ·
  • ads p.
    It will also push up their cleaning costs.
    Reply ·
  • alex
    Coming soon: Passenger Service - 6 randomly selected passengers will be chosen as flight crew for each ryan air flight. Volunteer Co-Pilot - A lucky passenger will be chosen to be the co-pilot. Obviously not the actual pilot, they are chosen from the Pilot-by-post school of aviation (payments can be spread over 5 easy suppositories). Coin operated life vests - Each passenger will have to choose whether they receive a life vest before they board. £10 supplimentary fee, extra £1 returnable deposit if inflation is required.
    Reply ·
  • Nobby
    Why don't they have an advert opt out fee, of say £20, so you can optionally opt out of printing the advert on your boarding pass.
    Reply ·
  • Mark M.
    What about wasting paper? Also the extra ink and electricity required to print off the adverts. I know it is nit-picking but it isn't very green is it?
    Reply ·
  • Alanino
    What is the point of this article? Bit of a non-event - "Adverts to be printed on boarding cards". Impressive bit of journalism though - to stretch it out to 3/4 paragraphs. Wow, big deal. The internet is awash with advertising, why are people surprised that if you print out something from the internet it will have advertising on it?!?
    Reply ·
  • dave
    Alanino you my friend are a prick, don't like it?, don't come here....simples
    Reply ·
  • james d.
    the bastards, exploring new revenue streams which have almost no effect on customers.
    Reply ·
  • Nobby
    The non-eco friendly little bit of ink and electricity is hardly going to matter compared to the fuel though, is it?
    Reply ·
  • Video G.
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  • callum
    You lot really do hate RyanAir... "Passing the cost to the customers", i doubt peope are spending any more than about 5p on printing it out - unless of course they are using special photo ink on top of the range paper.... Printing out your own boarding pass means Ryanair don't need to employ people to do it for you. Less staff = less running costs = lower prices. I really do with people would stop moaning about fees. Only an idiot couldn't buy a cheap ryanair flight without fees.
    Reply ·
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  • Brian
    Hi, my name is Brian. I am confused. Why are all these messages posted by "Game Tester" and others, without anything to contribute to the Bitterwallet forum (blog) in their text?
    Reply ·
  • -]
    linkbacks, the bane of the blog world. BW, disable them (or have a separate section like some blogs).
    Reply ·
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