Ryanair

Review by eFreeware

Booking a short flight usually means juggling a browser, an email confirmation and a screenshot of a boarding pass. An airline's own app can fold those steps into one place, and that is the ground Ryanair Limited is working on with its Android app. It is free, it carries no ads and it offers no in-app purchases, which keeps the experience to the airline's own services.

The app has been on Google Play since October 2012 and has passed 50 million installs, so it is clearly a tool a lot of people reach for. Its average rating sits at 3.0 from roughly 386,900 ratings, a middling score that suggests the app does a job without delighting everyone. The developer's own pitch is simple: low fares and the airline's extras, reachable from a phone.

In this review I am working from what Ryanair describes rather than from a stint of flying with it, so treat the details below as a map of what the app is built to do and who it makes sense for.

Low fares and the booking pitch

The headline claim is fares. Ryanair bills its app as the place to find the lowest fares in Europe, and that promise is the reason most people would open it: search a route, compare what the airline is offering, and book without leaving the phone. Whether the fares really undercut everyone else is the airline's assertion, not something the app itself proves, so I would treat it as the marketing line it is and check the price against your own plans.

What matters more for day-to-day use is that booking and the rest of the trip live in the same place. Once a flight is booked, the app is where the airline expects you to handle the remaining steps, rather than a separate website you have to remember. For anyone who flies Ryanair a few times a year, that consolidation is the real draw.

The developer also points to extras that can be added during the booking flow, described as a choice of in-flight items available in one quick click. That is a small convenience, but it fits the pattern: keep the whole transaction inside the app so nothing has to be done twice.

Check-in and boarding without paper

The feature I would use most is mobile check-in. Ryanair says you can check in while you are on the move, which matters for anyone heading to an airport from work, from a hotel or from wherever the day happens to end. Doing it in the app is the convenient option before a flight.

Check-in also produces a boarding pass on the phone. That is the piece that makes the app worth installing even if you book elsewhere. The developer describes it as arriving straight to your phone.

Together these two features cover the part of air travel that is most annoying to do at the last minute. If you travel with only a carry-on and no checked bag, the app can plausibly cover a lot of the airport experience.

What the app asks of you

There is no cost to install and no advertising inside the app, and Ryanair does not sell in-app purchases through it. Any money you spend is on the flight and the extras you choose, which are the airline's own prices rather than the app's. That keeps the app itself simple from a billing point of view: nothing to subscribe to, nothing to unlock.

The obvious requirement is that the app is for Ryanair flights. It is the airline's own tool, so its check-in, boarding pass and extras apply to travel with that carrier. If your itinerary is with another airline, this app has nothing to offer you, and that is worth knowing before you install it out of habit.

You will also want your phone handy at the airport, since that is the point of the mobile version. The app is rated for Everyone. The developer's listing also invites feedback by email.

How I would use it

My approach would be to install it before the trip rather than at the airport. Booking or managing the flight early gives you time to add whatever extras you want, instead of doing it at the last minute. The app is built for exactly that kind of preparation.

For a short break with hand luggage, the sequence is straightforward: book or pull up the flight, check in on the phone, and keep the boarding pass ready. Travelers checking bags will still have their own arrangements, but the paperwork side stays in the app. Either way, the fewer steps done at the last minute, the better the app works for you.

The recent update is about usability and general bug fixes rather than new features. A 3.0 average across a large number of ratings means I would keep expectations modest and judge the app on whether it gets you checked in and through the gate without fuss.

A sensible download for Ryanair regulars

If Ryanair is your airline, the app is the natural place to book, check in and hold your boarding pass, and it costs nothing to keep on your phone. I would install it ahead of a trip and use it as the single place for the flight rather than as an afterthought at the gate.

If you fly with other carriers, or you book through an agency that handles check-in for you, there is little here for you. The app is built around one airline's flights and one airline's extras, and it does that job rather than pretending to be a general travel companion.

The 3.0 average is a fair signal: this is a functional tool with room to improve, not a polished showpiece. For frequent Ryanair travelers who value having the boarding pass on their phone, that trade is usually worth making.

What's new in version 3.241.0

We are always working hard to improve your experience on the Ryanair app. In this release, we have improved usability issues and fixed general bugs.