A clear case of them putting their staff's (limited by FR's definition?) ability before passenger convenience or even common sense.
I accept in present climate that photo ID on aircraft is a must but it seems to be the laziness and arrogance of RYR that drive them to try to dictate rather than compile a list of officially acceptable ID.. I doubt that it is a revenue earner.
I firmly believe that it is
nothing to do with staff ability or management laziness. Remember, outside handling staff (who generally inspect ID on behalf of FR) often work with other airlines policies aswell. Taking one example, at LPL, Ryanair operates domestic flights to BHD & LDY. Servisair staff check passports at the gate, later on, passengers on the Flybe flight to IOM also have their various forms of ID inspected by Servisair. Even the same staff at times!
Basically, Ryanair want to keep the policy as simple as possible so the process is speeded up to meet turnaround times e.t.c. It also allows them to operate the cost-cutting 100% online check-in with no complications or paying for upgraded software, they ditched accepting drivers licences on UK domestic flights when they began fully using this system. And yes I realise EZY, BE, BA, BD and others can manage to operate with all different ID forms
and online check-in. But hey, it's FR we are talking about, they like it to operate with the absolute
lowest costs!
Personally, I'm neither pro or anti FR. But I don't find it a huge hassle to bring a passport on domestic runs, infact it's quite easy to comply with! I travel to Belfast from LPL alot. I have a choice between EZY to BFS or FR to BHD. Usually it's FR because it's the most convenient for where i'm heading..and generally considerably cheaper if it's an early booking. The service isn't brilliant on FR but neither is it on EZY, the passport thing doesn't seem to bother anyone I know.....
