While Irish airline Ryanair is renowned for affordable flight tickets, numerous passengers, both seasoned and first-time, will be aware that this comes at a cost. The carrier has repeatedly emphasised that it is able to provide some of the most competitive flight prices throughout Europe thanks to the manner in which it has reduced spending on non-essential extras.
This translates to reduced legroom in order to fit more travellers on the same flights, no Wi-Fi connectivity, and no charging sockets for passengers’ electronic devices. Yet countless holidaymakers are prepared to forgo these comforts if it results in lower travel costs. One traveller, Maxine McCourt, questioned the airline about introducing pockets on the rear of seats on its flights – a feature most other carriers have – to enable people to keep smaller belongings while airborne.
“@Ryanair would it really have broke the bank to put a wee net here?” Maxine wrote in the overlay text of her TikTok video, as she gestured to the seat in front of her on the flight while holding her earphones case in her hand. Most carriers have pockets constructed from mesh or similar fabrics on the rear of chairs, typically holding the flight safety guidance, and which travellers can utilise to keep items such as headphones, refreshments, or reading material.
Rather than storing these belongings in a bag and having to rummage around to retrieve them while seated in a cramped space, you can simply remove them before departure and have access to them until you touch down. However, Ryanair evidently felt no obligation to incorporate this additional feature into their aircraft seating.
The carrier delivered a blunt three-word response to Maxine through its own video. After reposting Maxine’s clip, an image of a Ryanair aircraft appeared with a face superimposed on it, as the airline proceeded to deliver its cutting reply.
“You have hands, use them. If you don’t like it, buy your own plane,” it stated in the video, underlining its position in the post’s caption: “Use your hands.”
Viewers quickly descended upon the comments section to voice their opinions, with some supporting Ryanair’s choice to exclude the pockets from their seating. “They removed them pockets, because people are dirty, and this decision saves time on cleaning,” one person commented.
Another concurred, writing: “Ryanair got a point here. It’s not just the cost of the net, but the fuel to transport it across a continent 1,000 times.”
A third user posted: “Makes sense as whenever you fly on a plane with a net behind the seats everyone just leaves rubbish in them, means you don’t waste time cleaning.”
Another viewer continued: “I agree with Ryanair whole agenda, their whole market is not ‘we are the best’, it’s ‘we are the most affordable’, this is exactly how lower prices and fight the big names, they have to get profit from the flights, so they have to remove anything unnecessary so they can maintain low prices, I am all for that.”
This story originally appeared on Express.co.uk
