The New Ryanair Inflight Magazine

Ryanair just announced to much fanfare they have reworked their only in-flight entertainment option to a smaller and ‘lighter’ product. Literally shaving centimetres off to making a compact A5 magazine. Whilst this is a smart move, reducing fuel burn and cutting costs, not to mention freeing up more space in the overhead bins for everyone’s luggage. I can’t help but feel ‘Let’s Go With Ryanair’ might be a step in the wrong direction. On a 5 hour flight on a Ryanair plane, leafing through the magazine loads of times can be the only thing that stops you from wanting to shoot your fellow passengers.

Still, Edited by Ramsay Short, the magazine has managed to keep its light and brash sense of humour and also managed to keep its youthful European feel to it injected by new Art Director, Mat Wiggins, kidnapped from newsstand titles such as HotDog and Bizarre. Some of the spreads take advantage of the smaller size, and larger landscape photos dominate the upfront section, oozing of “I-wanna-go-there” appeal. The cabin crew charity calendar girls still manage to make an entry, but for those regulars looking for their eye candy, you now need to flick to the back of the magazine where they proudly finish the read.

The design is fresh and slightly at odds to the Ryanair brand, bright vibrant colours, simple slab typography and a sense of space runs through the magazine, but perhaps intentionally, acting as a sanctuary to escape to from the lack of space onboard. The use of the camera phone bar codes are a nifty new touch, allowing the reader to continue their read on their smart phone when they leave the plane.

Sadly, the advertising lets the magazine down though, with lots of quarter page adverts it becomes difficult to read and quite frankly, last time I checked, ‘hair loss’ adverts weren’t really relevant to a holiday reader?

I look forward to seeing this magazine evolve with time and grow into its new, slightly smaller, boots.