Ryanair to Trial Reserved Seating
Normally no-frills carrier Ryanair has revealed plans to try a reserved seating system for the first time on one of its cheap flights to Spain and London, starting next month.
The airline will allow passengers to book reserved seats on the Dublin to Malaga and Dublin to Gatwick services from 16 May. Under the trial system, customers would pay €10 each way for pre-reserved seats in the front two rows – for those who wish to leave the plane swiftly upon its arrival – or in the rows over the wings, which have more legroom available.
The extra charge will also include priority boarding, which remains available to all passengers for an additional €4 each way on Ryanair's cheap flights, although the carrier said that passengers under the age of 16 are only able to reserve seats in the second row, "due to safety restrictions".
Ryanair head of communications Stephen McNamara said that "if the new service proves popular with passengers then we will role (sic) it out selectively on other Ryanair routes in the coming months".
The idea of an extra fee for reserved seating is likely to have its fair share of supporters, which is more than can be said for some of the cheap flights airline's other wheezes in previous years. These include the headline-grabbing claim that Ryanair was looking into charging passengers for using the in-flight toilets, or the recent announcement of a €2 cover charge on all flights to counter the costs incurred by EU compensation laws.
Some analysts even believe that the latest cover charge and the new reserved seating charge – although optional – is a response to the rising price of aviation fuel, with the price of a barrel of crude increasing from $96 to $120 since the beginning of 2011.
Airlines and Airport News posted by 
on 20 April 2011
