Ryanair Pulls Plug On Prime Membership Offering After Trial Proves Too Costly

• Brady said that the Prime members have received over €6 million in fare discounts, so “this trial has cost more money than it generates.”
• All existing Prime members will continue to enjoy exclusive monthly low-fare offers until October 2026, but no new members will be allowed to sign up after Friday.
• According to Ryanair’s website, the Prime members get free reserved seats, free travel insurance and access to 12 member-only seat sales and one each month.

Ryanair (RYAAY) announced on Friday that it will close its prime member offering from November, following an eight-month trial period during which the European airline noted that the membership cost more than it generated.

Chief Marketing Officer Dara Brady said that to date, Ryanair has signed up over 55,000 Prime members, generating over €4.4 million ($5.1 million) in subscription fees. However, Prime members have received over €6 million in fare discounts, so “this trial has cost more money than it generates,” Brady said,

The company said that all existing Prime members will continue to enjoy exclusive monthly low-fare offers until October 2026, but no new members will be allowed to sign up after Friday.

Ryanair Prime Membership Details

According to Ryanair’s website, Prime members get free reserved seats, free travel insurance, and access to 12 member-only seat sales, one each month. Prime members get the offer for £79 per annum.

Ryanair noted that, based on a passenger who flew 12 times last year, the potential savings so far from the membership were £640 per year. The company added that for a passenger who flew three times last year, the potential savings so far were £415.

Brady’s View

Brady noted that existing Prime members will be allowed to use their seat savings for the remainder of their 12-month membership.

“This level of memberships, or subscription revenue does not justify the time and effort it takes to launch monthly exclusive Prime seat sales for our 55,000 Prime members,” Brady said.  

He noted that the airline has had over 207 million passengers this year and said that they would be trying to offer the lowest fares in Europe to all its customers, and not the subset of 55,000 Prime members.

Retail sentiment on Ryanair remained unchanged in the ‘bearish’ territory, with message volumes at ‘normal’ levels, according to data from Stocktwits.

U.S.-listed shares of the company have gained nearly 57% this year.

€1 = $1.16

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