Ryanair flights are some of the cheapest on the market, offering a base rate for passengers attempting to fly on a budget.
To keep the costs low, budget airlines then add additional charges such as for luggage, food or priority boarding.
Many airlines now charge passengers to choose their seat on short-haul flights, with Ryanair, easyJet and British Airways just some of the airlines to do this.
A recent investigation into Ryanair has found that travellers in groups not wanting to pay for seat reservations don’t have much chance of sitting together.
The Daily Mail study looked into passengers who don’t choose to buy seats together as a family.
It found that the chances of two parents travelling with a child have the same chance of winning £100 in the lottery than being able to get three seats together on the flight.
Looking at a Ryanair flight with 189 seats, it found over six million ways of being able to sit three people on a plane separately, compared to 378 ways to sit them together.
Senior lecturer in economics and personal finance at The Open University worked this out to be just one in 17,578 chance of sitting together.
The same investigation for a couple being able to sit together found their chance to be just one in 141.
Back in September 2017, Ryanair’s chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs admitted to withholding aisle and window seats for paying passengers during seating allocation, meaning people may be split up across the plane.
He told Express.co.uk: “Since our current load factor is 97 per cent, we have to keep these window and aisle seats free to facilitate those customers who are willing to pay (from £2) for them.”
However, he did later admit in a press conference last month that there is no algorithm to separate people, stating: “No. We don’t even have time to think about doing that.”
Twitter users have complained about finding themselves split up despite a number of free seats.
User C.D.Ellis complained: “Checked wife and I onto flight with many free seats together. Randomly put 10 rows apart, in middle seats to make it harder for future passengers to sit together.”
Another flier found they were separated from his wife and child: “So I’m going on my first family holiday with my 6-month-old son and @Ryanair decide to sit my wife and I apart despite there being spare seats available next to us, forcing us an added expense of paying to allocate seats. Disgraceful.”
One Twitter user then explained how by splitting everyone up, it caused the flight boarding process to become like “musical chairs with everyone swapping around”.
The airline has also recently upped their prices for booking a seat when travelling with them.
Originally, the prices started at £2 for a standard seat to £11 for one with leg room.
This has since increased to £4 and £15, respectively.
Michael O’Leary has previously been vocal with his concerns for what Brexit could mean for the low-cost airlines and threatening to ground planes.
