Business Travel

Stand by for some major changes if you travel with low-cost airline Ryanair.

Stand by for some major changes if you travel with low-cost airline Ryanair. The frills provided by the Irish carrier have always been few and far between, but now you will have to pay for what many people consider to be the essentials. In pursuit of its aim to close all airport check-in desks by 1 October, the airline now plans to encourage passengers to check-in for flights online by charging up to £20 a head for anyone checking in at the airport. Ryanair now allows passengers on some flights to use mobile telephones at prices between £1.50 and £3 per minute for a call. Chief executive Michael O’Leary even said he was considering charging passengers to use the lavatories, but a spokesman later said he was ‘taking the piss’.

Speaking of no-frills airlines, Malaysia-based low-cost Air Asia X, in which Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin group is a shareholder, is starting flights between Stansted and Kuala Lumpur. The airbus A340-300 planes will offer both economy and business class. Following the model created by the likes of EasyJet and Ryanair, the airline plans to charge for checked-in baggage as well as the use of in-flight entertainment.

Travel in business class with BMI to Cairo, Tel Aviv, Beirut or Kiev and you now have the option of a free chauffeur service – both to get you to Heathrow and when you arrive at the other end. The airline already offers the facility to business-class passengers flying to Moscow, Riyadh or Jeddah. Under the scheme, which only applies if you have paid for a fully-flexible business-class ticket, you are met when you arrive at Heathrow’s Terminal 1 by a concierge who will take your bags and escort you to the airline’s new Premium check-in zone.

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