Gate closes on late adapters

Ireland's Ryanair revels in being the big meanie of the travel world, to the point where cheerful boorishness (with added bleeps) is its public relations technique. But even by its own standards, being beastly to the elderly is a bold step commercially.

- Jane Clifton

It stands accused of being heartless to some of its best customers: the 40 million-odd of its annual passengers (about 20%) who prefer a paper boarding pass to using a smart phone or tablet. It has just started refusing customers the paper option. No exceptions. Most affected will be seniors who dislike the faff of ever-morphing systems on small-print screens.

From Europe's biggest airline, this could be seen as a global snub, not just to luddites who mulishly refuse to become “silver surfers”, but to older travellers in general, deemed liable to take longer to board.

Heroically thick-skinned even after an official censure, Ryanair is unapologetic, saying it strives to make flights cheaper and more efficient.

In the hair-trigger logistics of air travel, delays cost airlines dearly, and removing paper will make technical hitches less likely.