Casino in the Sky

I love RyanAir. In case you are not familiar with them, they are a budget airline that flies all over Europe for extremely low fares. How low, the last time I was there I flew from London to Rome for $18. That is not a misprint. The most I have ever paid to fly on Ryan Air was $38 from Turin to London. My brother-in-law flew from Venice to London for $26. There are even times when you can fly for $2.

How good are they? Frankly, they are just fine. They fly modern jet aircraft and have limited, but good in-flight service. They usually don't fly from the major airports in big cities, which helps cut down their cost. For instance, in London, you fly from Stansted instead of Heathrow. Check them out, the next time you are in Europe.

But the purpose of this blog is to tell you about Ryan Air's newest plan to launch online bingo and gaming next year following the introduction of its in-flight mobile phone service for passengers. Passengers will be able to use their mobile phones and other handheld devices on flights to play Ryanair's online bingo and a number of other instant-win games that will offer jackpots in excess of $380,000 (200,000 pounds).

The launch of this innovative in-flight online gambling service, however, is dependent on European regulatory approval for Ryaniar's mobile phone service. The service is due to launch by the middle of 2007 and will allow passengers to make and receive voice calls and instant messages via satellite broadband links.

To help promote next year's launch of the in-flight gambling service, Ryanair has this week teamed up with a U.K. online bingo operator to launch Ryanair bingo and other games on the airline's own Web site. During the first week all Ryanair customers who play any of the online games will receive a free flight.

You just can't beat technology.