Tuesday April 19, 2005

The Guardian

Ryanair has abandoned a trial of in-flight entertainment after struggling to persuade passengers to pay €7 (£5) for cartoons, films and video games.

The Irish airline was testing a system known as the ``digEplayer``, in which travellers were given a hand-held system if they paid an on-board fee.

In a terse statement yesterday, Ryanair said it had decided to ``discontinue`` the venture, adding that it would suffer ``no financial loss whatsoever`` over its withdrawal.

Ryanair`s trial began in October and the airline admitted in January that take-up had been disappointing, with as few as five passengers per aircraft willing to pay for entertainment. The poor take-up of the system was a blow for the Irish airline`s chief executive, Michael O`Leary, who had predicted that it would generate ``enormous sums of money``.

Other low-cost airlines have experimented with entertainment as a source of additional revenue. An American carrier, JetBlue, offers television programmes on domestic flights.

EasyJet is running a two-month trial of a similar system on flights from Newcastle and East Midlands, targeting longer flights of up to three hours to Mediterranean destinations. An easyJet spokesman said: ``The trial is going very well and we`re finding demand to be strong. But no decision on its future will be made until the trial period is over at the end of April.``

Critics have pointed out that many travellers, particularly children, already have hand-held devices for video games and viewing.

There was scepticism among commentators about whether Ryanair`s flights were long enough to justify passengers paying for entertainment.

An industry source said a recent change in pricing had made on-demand entertainment less attractive to airlines. Film distributors are demanding a cut in the price paid by every passenger, rather than merely accepting a monthly fee for each movie available.

The digEplayer was the brainchild of Bill Boyer, a former baggage handler with Alaska Airlines who set up a company, APS, to develop the idea.

Chris Wood, vice-president of operations at APS, said: ``We`ve been working with Ryanair pretty closely. The short flights were causing the low rental rates. We`re working with them on an alternative business model.``