In the coming weeks, Ryanair will be completely eliminating paper boarding passes and airport check-in. Is this a radical change, or is Ryanair just ahead of its time?
Ryanair boarding passes are going 100% digital
In October 2024, Ryanair Group CEO Michael O’Leary revealed that the airline would be significantly changing its check-in procedures. With this, the airline plans to completely scrap the concept of paper boarding passes, and in the process, eliminate airport check-in.
Well, this wasn’t just talk, as it’s really happening — as of Wednesday, November 12, 2025, Ryanair will transition to 100% digital boarding passes. Not only won’t it be possible to get a boarding pass at the airport, but you actually won’t even be able to print a boarding pass at home.
Instead, the only way to get a boarding pass will be to generate a digital one through the “myRyanair” app. Of course as before, it’ll be possible to check-in bags at the airport, but that’s a different function than getting checked in.
Ryanair claims that around 80% of the carrier’s 206+ million annual customers already use digital boarding passes, and that this move simply follows other key industries that require tickets, like festivals, music, and sports events, which have switched to digital-only ticketing.
Under Ryanair’s current policy, the airline requires passengers to check-in online, unless they have a Flexi Plus ticket, in which case they can check-in at the airport. Those who don’t have online boarding passes are even on the hook for quite some fees.
For one, the airline has a £/€55 airport check-in fee, which applies per person per sector, for those who don’t have a Flexi Plus ticket. That’s right, you might have booked a £10 ticket, but then you need to pay £55 to actually check-in for your flight. On top of that, the airline has a £/€20 fee to reissue boarding passes.
Is this Ryanair policy change unreasonable?
To my knowledge, we’ve never seen an airline go quite this far when it comes to restricting check-in, though we’re talking about Ryanair, an airline that’s almost proud of how punitive it can be with customers. I mean, this is the same airline that (jokingly… well, sort of) insults its customers on social media all day.
What I find interesting here is that this change is actually one step further than I was expecting. Initially, I thought Ryanair would just eliminate the ability to check-in at the airport, but it’s actually more than that. You can’t even print a boarding pass at home, but instead, need to download and use the app.
In other words, it sounds like you can no longer fly Ryanair if you don’t have a smartphone. Now, admittedly a vast majority of people do have smartphones, but it seems pretty extreme to essentially say that those without a smartphone can’t fly on your airline.
I suspect that in the coming years, we’re going to increasingly see airlines push people to check-in online, in order to reduce staffing at airports. For example, in 2023, Alaska Airlines announced it would eliminate airport check-in kiosks. At the time, the airline claimed that about 70% of passengers were checking in online, and the airline wanted to increase that number to 90%.
That’s at an airline where there’s no penalty to check-in at the airport, so I have to imagine that number is even way higher at Ryanair, where checking in at the airport will cost you dearly.
However, there’s a difference between asking people to check-in online (and potentially printing their own boarding pass), and requiring them to have a digital boarding pass (where they need a smartphone and the app). I imagine this is quite deliberate, and is the latest push for Ryanair to get people to download the app, since it’s much easier to sell people flights and services if they have the app, have push notifications enabled, etc.
I can’t help but be curious about the operational impacts this will have, either from people not familiar with the policy, or even from people who run out of battery on their phone while at the airport.
Bottom line
As of November 12, 2025, Ryanair will be transitioning to 100% digital boarding passes. Not only won’t it be possible to print a boarding pass at the airport, but it won’t even be possible to print one at home. Instead, the only way to get a boarding pass will be through Ryanair’s app.
While I do think we’ll increasingly see airlines transition to strongly encouraging people to check-in online, not even letting people print their own boarding passes at home certainly seems extreme, and means that anyone without a smartphone can’t fly with the airline.
What do you make of Ryanair transitioning to 100% digital boarding passes?
