Generous scratchcards worry budget airline

The UK budget airline Ryanair, frequently a pioneer in the introduction of in-flight gambling entertainment, has launched an enquiry into a remarkably generous scratch card game that enabled three passengers on the same Milan to Madrid flight to win new cars.
The Telegraph newspaper reports that the cars, worth GBP11 500 apiece, were the prize for winning on a GBP2 scratch card sold to passengers for their in-flight entertainment.  The normal rate at which cars are won is a car every month, raising concerns that something had gone wrong from the airline’s perspective.
The airline, which has agreed to award the three cars to the lucky fliers, suspects that the flaw may be a printing error by Brandforce, the company which runs the game.
Ryanair began selling scratchcards in 2008 in an attempt to further increase its additional or “ancillary” revenues, which contribute around a quarter of the airline’s annual earnings. The airline’s extra charges, including check-in fees, booking fees and luggage charges, have increased by up to 700 percent since 2006, the newspaper reports.

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