International Airline Ends Rewards Program After 8 Months

For frequent flyers, belonging to an airline's premium membership or rewards program is one of the benefits of spending lots of time in the air. However, for one European carrier, the cost of starting a membership plan did not outweigh the benefits.

Back in March, Ryanair announced the creation of its premium subscription service, named "Prime." Now, after eight months, the Irish budget airline is disbanding the program after it proved too expensive.

'Prime' doesn't work out as expected

At the time of its "Prime" rollout, Ryanair said the service, which cost €79, or $91.50 annually, would offer members perks like free seat selection, travel insurance, and access to exclusive fare sales. The company added that customers who flew Ryanair 12 or more times per year could save up to €420, or just under $500.

In a new announcement Friday, Ryanair CMO Dara Brady claimed that more than 55,000 people signed up for "Prime" membership, generating over €4.4m in revenue.

However, she says that the airline paid out over €6m in discount benefits, causing an unsustainable situation.

“Over the years, customers have asked for a Ryanair members scheme, so we trialled this ‘Prime’ scheme over the last 8 months," Brady said. "To date, we have signed up over 55,000 Prime members, generating over €4.4m in subscription fees. However, our Prime members have received over €6m in fare discounts, so this trial has cost more money than it generates. 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."

More to the story?

When they announced "Prime," Ryanair intended to cap membership at 250,000, but in eight months, the airline enrolled less than one-quarter of that estimated number. This opens up the possibility, One Mile At A Time's Ben Schlappig writes, that perhaps Ryanair shuttered "Prime" because it didn't generate the interest they thought it would, and not just because it was too costly.

"I think perhaps the other factor here that isn’t emphasized enough is that the interest just wasn’t as big as the airline was hoping," Schlappig said. "With just 55,000 of the 250,000 possible memberships being purchased, it sounds like the airline may have misjudged the amount of interest there would be.

"If the airline found there to be some overwhelming interest for such a program, I can see how the airline might continue to invest in the program, to make the math work. But with a lack of interest and bad economics, they figured it wasn’t worth the effort."

'Prime' members will retain benefits--for now

According to Paddle Your Own Kanoo, Ryanair says it will continue offering monthly discount opportunities to "Prime" members through October 2026, at which point the initiative will cease to exist.

"We are grateful to our 55,000 Prime members who signed up to this Prime trial over the last 8-months, and they can rest assured that they will continue to enjoy exclusive flight and seat savings for the remainder of their 12-month membership," Brady added in her official statement.

“With over 207m passengers this year, Ryanair will continue to focus on delivering the lowest fares in Europe to all our customers, and not this subset of 55,000 Prime members.”