You better believe it! Ryanair spokesman, Stephen McNamara, in an interview with the Irish Times, states the airline will proceed with plans to charge passengers for using toilets during short haul services of under 1 hour.

McNamara commented, “one toilet will discourage over-dependence. There is nothing in the rule book to say that an aircraft has to have any toilets at all, which might sound strange, but we believe three toilets are excessive.”

The airline, in its in-flight magazine, stated the introduction of coin-operated toilets would reduce fares by at least 5%, and is part of efforts by Ryanair to reduce the number of toilets on its aircraft, to make room for an additional six seats.

This is truly cutting edge stuff MOL is playing with. Of course it means airport toilets will be the last place every Ryanair passengers will stop at prior to boarding and be the first place they will go after deplaning. Cartoons of how to identify (dare we say profile?) a Ryanair customer will be to see if their eyes are afloat. On the one hand this is so ludicrous and funny while on the other hand it is downright obnoxious.

Ryanair on May 20 will begin phasing out its airport check-in desks and from Oct. 1 will require all customers to check in online in an effort to lower its cost base.

The low-cost carrier also has stopped taking bookings for unaccompanied minors and now requires passengers flying within a single country and all infants to hold a valid passport or national identity card.

With the move to online check-in, Ryanair will no longer charge its 10 pounds/10 euros ($15.12/$13.60) check-in fee but will institute a 5 pound/5 euro online check-in fee for each passenger and each non-promotional flight. A 40 pound/40 euro “boarding card re-issue fee” also will be introduced to “encourage all passengers to arrive at the airport with their pre-printed Web check-in boarding card,” said the carrier.

“Passengers traveling without checked-in bags have already embraced our online check-in service, and the extension of this service to all passengers, including those with hold luggage and those traveling with infants will allow all passengers to forever avoid check-in queues,” continued Ryanair, noting, “This will also allow Ryanair to lower our airport and handling costs and pass these savings to all passengers in the form of even lower air fares next winter.”

More…

Ryanair’s effort to simplify the check-in and boarding process, cut costs and increase ancillary revenue will include a new £2/€3 ($4.00-$4.07) fee charged to each person using an airport check-in desk beginning Sept. 20.

The LCC said the fee “reflects the cost of airport check-in desk facilities” but also will encourage customers to use its Check’N'Go Web check-in service, which formerly cost the same £2/€3 per usage but now will be free for passengers traveling with only carry-on baggage and will include free priority boarding. The latter service will remain available for other customers for a £2/€3 fee.

“Ryanair’s Web check-in and priority boarding service has proven very popular among passengers by freeing them from check-in queues and departure gate queues. However, clearly charging for this service has acted as a disincentive,” the carrier said. “We expect that providing this service free of charge will significantly increase usage,” it added, noting that the new measures “will, we believe, encourage more and more passengers to travel without checked-in baggage.”

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