Fly For Free with Ryanair If You Stand Up

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Ryanair passengers could soon fly for free - if they want to stand for their journey. Skip related content


Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary told Sky News the low-cost airline was considering ripping out the back few rows of seats on some flights. Passengers would be able to sit on bar stools, similar to the buffet carriage on trains, or stand up for flights lasting less than an hour and a half. "We might take out the last five or six rows and say to passengers 'Do you want to stand up? If you do you can travel for free'," Mr O'Leary said. The company has asked Boeing to look at the possibility of converting its planes or delivering a new fleet with "vertical seating". Ryanair spokesman stressed the non-seating plan would have to be given the OK by the Irish Aviation Authority.
But Mr O'Leary shrugged off suggestions the move was a cost-cut too far. "Why is this any different to what happens on trains where you see thousands of people who cannot get a seat standing in the aisles, and it happens regularly on the Underground," he said.

Mr O'Leary said he got the idea from the Chinese airline Spring, which said it could squeeze 50% more passengers on board and cut costs by 20%. Ryanair has proposed a number of headline-catching plans to save cash. A "fat tax" - charging heavier passengers more to fly - caused anger, as did similar initiatives to cut the number of toilets on flights and charge people to spend a penny. The company announced on Friday it had carried 5.84 million passengers in June, 13% more than a year earlier.

Low-cost airline easyJet said it carried more passengers during June than over the same period last year. But British Airways said on Friday that it carried 5% fewer passengers in June, while its planes were 79.6% full, compared with 81.4% a year earlier -story from http://uk.news.yahoo.com/