Ryanair is extending its £4 charge for priority boarding to passengers who check in online for bookings from June 3.

Until now, only passengers who check in at the airport have been charged for priority boarding, while those who checked in via the airline’s website got the service free of charge.

Ryanair said the free offer was only a temporary measure to encourage people to make use of online check-in.

It said it also meant that the airline frequently sold out of its allocation of 80 priority boarding seats.

Ryanair’s Lorna Farren said: “These new charges will make the sale of priority boarding fairer for all passengers.

“Because of the success of our web check-in facility (which allows passengers to avoid airport queues) many flights are now selling out all of our allocation of 80 (40%) of priority boarding seats.

“By charging the same fee for priority boarding for both web check-in and airport check-in passengers, we hope to ensure that priority boarding seats will always be available for sale at airports for family members and groups who wish to purchase it.”

From the same date, Ryanair will also introduce an online name change facility which will allow passengers to make name changes up to 24 hours before travel.

This service was previously only available through the Ryanair call centre.


By Bev Fearis