Ryanair set to scrap in-flight entertainment

http://www.examiner.ie/pport/web/business/Full_Story/did-sgIUBZEQKV2nIsg7IQHSmeYhNE.asp

Ian Guider

RYANAIR is considering scrapping its much-hyped in-flight entertainment devices if sales do not pick up soon.

The airline, which launched the hand-held devices last year, said the take-up has been poor so far and it will extend the trials for only another few months.

The devices, which passengers rent from the airline for the flight, show movies, music videos and television programmes, were touted by the airline as a potential money-spinner.

It was the first airline in Europe to launch them.

The airline said last year that it only needed to sell seven of the devices per flight to break even and had high hopes for strong sales.

Ryanair deputy chief executive Howard Millar said there was only a limited market for the devices as it was geared mainly for longer flights.

He said around half of all Ryanair flights were less than 90 minutes in duration.

“We only have them on trial on five aircraft out of a fleet of 80. We also only had them in English, whereas half of our passengers would not have English as their first language, so we can only sell to half of our customer base. We’ve now got different languages on board and we’ll try it again,” Mr Millar said.

The airline has already reduced the price of the devices from 7 to 5 to spur interest in the system.

“The breakeven is six to seven units per flight on a cost recovered basis. On some flights we are hitting that [figure], on some we’re not. We won’t lose any money on it,” Mr Millar added.

“We’ll give it another go and hopefully with the language content and reducing price, we’ll see how it works out and, if not, we’ll move onto something else.”