2,000 passengers arrive without digital boarding pass on first day of Ryanair 'paperless' flights

Passengers can no longer download and print a physical paper boarding pass and must instead use the digital boarding pass

Wed, 12 Nov, 2025 - 14:21

Martin Claffey

Almost 2,000 Ryanair passengers arrived with paper tickets, or without digital boarding passes downloaded, on the first day of the airline's rollout of 100% paperless boarding passes.

From Wednesday, November 12, passengers can no longer download and print a physical paper boarding pass and must instead use the digital boarding pass generated in their “myRyanair” app during check-in.

Ryanair said that 98% of passengers presented digital boarding passes for over 700 flights across Europe this morning. "The other 2% - all of whom had checked in online before arriving at the airport - were issued free of charge boarding passes at airport ticket desks," said a Ryanair statement.

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No passengers were offloaded, and where one or two passengers had a problem with their phone, they were boarded as the boarding gates had their details from their online check-in, said the airline.

“So far, day one of Ryanair’s DBP has been a huge success as over 700 flights and more than 100,000 passengers enjoyed the improved service and better experience of paper-free boarding at Ryanair airports. We estimate our digital boarding pass initiative will save up to €40m annually, and this will help us to lower ticket prices and make air travel more competitive for Ryanair’s customers," said Ryanair chief marketing officer Dara Brady.

The budget airline said nearly 80% of its annual passengers are alreadying using its digital applications for boarding. Ryanair had already delayed the rollout of digital boarding passes until after the mid-term break for schools.

Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary had said the airline would continue to be "reasonably forgiving" of passengers showing up with paper boarding passes until after Christmas and the New Year.