Ryanair crew told to sell at least eight scratch cards or face action

Internal Ryanair memo sets target of one bottle of perfume per day

Safety instructions shown by a stewardess on  a Ryanair flight. File photograph:  Getty
Safety instructions shown by a stewardess on a Ryanair flight. File photograph: Getty

Ryanair cabin crew are required to sell eight scratch cards each per day or face action, an internal staff memo shows.

The memo, from a supervisor to staff at one of the airline’s European bases states: “If the same crew members names appear to not be reaching their daily targets [they] will be met with by their supervisor and further action taken.”

Ryanair cabin crew’s daily targets also include selling one bottle of perfume a day, one meal deal, and one item of fresh food.

The memo, seen by The Irish Times states: “Sales will be monitored closely and any crew member not reaching their target daily will need to explain why”. The memo was circulated to staff in late March.

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A spokesman for Ryanair would not comment on the memo itself, but said that “crew are incentivised to sell ancillary products on board and are rewarded with sales bonuses”.

He added: “The safety of our customers, people and aircraft comes before all other considerations, including sales”.

The Ryanair charity scratch cards, which are sold on flights for €2, have been at the centre of controversy before. The scratch cards give entrants a chance to enter an annual draw with a jackpot of €1 million.

But the annual winner selected from the draw does not automatically take home the €1 million jackpot, instead they have to pick one envelope out of 125. Only one of these envelops has the €1 million prize, others have lower prizes which range down to €50,000. The 2016 scratch card draw winner was from the United Kingdom, and won €50,000.

A spokesman for Ryanair said the €1 million jackpot has never been won, but that the scratch cards include other prizes outside of the annual draw, such as “thousands of cash prizes (up to €5,000) and free cars (at least 1 per month)” he said.

A spokesman for the airline said they could not disclose the total value of scratch cards sold in a year “for commercial reasons”.

The spokesman said over the last five years the company has donated €2 million to charity from the scratch card sales. He said a portion of the sales have been “donated to 50 charities across 12 different EU countries covering a wide range of hospitals, schools and child welfare fund raisings.”

Jack Power

Jack Power

Jack Power is acting Europe Correspondent of The Irish Times