Back in September last year, you may recall us reporting that Ryanair were proposing to make in-flight entertainment available on its flights. Passengers were to be charged £5 ($9.48) to access films, cartoons and tv shows on portable lap top type units. Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O'Leary who said in September the units would become “as common as the in-flight magazine”. These have been on trial since November and are about to be abandoned. “It was lack of demand. They decided not to follow it any further,” a Ryanair spokeswoman said. Ryanair said it had not lost any money on the system, which was on trial in only five planes before making a significant investment. The latest money making wheeze is to have in-flight gambling. Watch this space!
News comes of Ryanair selling a brand of water called Blue Rock water, which costs £1.85 for a 500 ml. Reports state that this special Ryanair water isn't from a pure mountain stream or highland spring – it is just carbonated tap water. To purchase the same water from Thames Water i.e. turn on the tap costs 0.06p per litre. The only difference between turning on the tap in any London home and Ryanair's Blue Rock is that the sparkling version has been carbonated at a water treatment works in Beckton, East London, before being bottled and labelled. While the label does not claim to be genuine spring water, neither does it make it clear that it is tap water. Britvic, which 'makes' Blue Rock, made exclusively for Ryanair, claimed the brand was about to be replaced by a new product called Pennine Spring, sourced from a natural spring in Huddersfield.