The CEO of budget travel airliner, Ryan Air recently called thousands of passengers "idiots" for not printing their boarding passes ahead of time.
The airline charges fees for every boarding pass that isn't printed upon check in and Michael O'Leary, the CEO of the Irish-based airline said according to the UK's Mirror that passengers were "stupid" for not printing them out ahead of time and having to pay a fee at the airport.
His rant was prompted after a passenger, Suzy McLeod was charged €300 to print out five boarding passes. McLeod was traveling from Alicante, Spain to Bristol, UK and wasn't able to print them out before the flight.
McLeod had printed out boarding passes prior to the flight however, Ryanair only allows passes to be printed up to two weeks before departure and the family was in Spain for more than two weeks. According to the Mirror it was difficult for McLeod to print them out because they were staying at a villa with no Internet connection.
McLeod then went on Facebook to share her complaints and asked for 500,000 "Likes" of support.
O'Leary said in response, according to The Telegraph, "We think Mrs. McLeod should pay 60 euros for being so stupid," he said. "She wasn't able to print her boarding card because, as you know, there are no Internet cafes in Alicante, no hotels where they could print them out for you, and you couldn't get to a fax machine so some friend at home can print them and fax them to you."
He added that 99.98 percent of passengers print their boarding passes in advance. To those that don't? "We say quite politely, Bugger off."
In a statement to The Telegraph Ryanair said, "As is clearly outlined in the terms and conditions for every Ryanair passenger, Mrs. McLeod agreed at the time of booking that she and her fellow passengers would check in online and print their boarding cards before arriving at their departure airport, and she also accepted and agreed that if she failed to do so then she would pay our boarding card re-issue penalty of £60 [60 euros in the EU zone] per passenger."
Ryanair has some of the cheapest flights around and their fee prices are a a part of the bargain, when you fly with them. In the past the airline has explored options such as charging to use the bathroom.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
