In message , at 09:00:04 on Sun,
22 Feb 2009, Neil Williams remarked:
Ryanair has confirmed it plans to close all of its airport check-in
desks by the end of the year in a bid to reduce the cost of its
flights.

This probably will reduce costs a fair bit as they currently handle
check-ins manually using a bit of paper and a pen (to avoid having to
pay to use the airport computer systems), so it's quite
labour-intensive.

I can't see how it will save much labour at the majority of airports.
They will still have a "bag drop" [and I bet at least some of the
current "check-in compulsory" categories will become "bag drop
compulsory"] with probably at least two people even at outposts. One of
the reasons they close the check-in early, of course, is so the same
people can go airside and double as gate staff.

I hope it doesn't get as bad as some small USA airports, where they run
the system with just two employees - one "outbound" front of house and
one doing *everything* else, including on the apron - waving the
airplane in, unloading and loading bags (including putting them on the
belt and taking complaints about missing bags) etc.
--
Roland Perry