Europe's biggest airline Ryanair said this morning it will scrap a subscription service after a trial this year as it was not worth it financially.
Ryanair, which is headquartered in Ireland and carried about 200 million passengers last year, launched a 'Prime member' offering in March, providing fee-paying subscribers with discounts on fares.
But it said in a statement that it was closing it after the scheme generated 4.4 million euros ($5 million) in subscription fees over eight months but gave out 6 million euros in fare discounts."
"This trial has cost more money than it generates," Ryanair chief marketing officer Dara Brady said. "This level of memberships, or subscription revenue does not justify the time and effort it takes to launch monthly exclusive Prime seat sales."
The trial attracted 55,000 members, who will all be entitled to continue to use their subscription for the duration of their 12-month membership. The airline said in March that membership would be limited to 250,000 people.
Higher bookings
Ryanair's bookings for December, including the important Christmas period, are slightly ahead of where they were a year ago, with around 40% of seats remaining to be sold until the end of this year, CEO Michael O'Leary said.
The airline, Europe's largest by passenger numbers, said earlier this month it expected to fly 207 million passengers in the year to end-March, one million more than earlier forecast, after improved deliveries of aircraft from Boeing enabled it to add capacity in the first half and the current quarter.