scheme

Ryanair claimed its Prime subscription scheme was a ‘no brainer’ for frequent flyers, but it failed to attract anything like enough customers and has now been ditched

Budget airline Ryanair has announced the immediate closure of a loyalty scheme to new customers after failing admitting it was loss-making.

The no-frills carrier only launched its £79 a year Prime subscription in March, offering free reserved seats, free travel insurance and access to 12 annual (one per each month) member-exclusive seat sales.

It claimed that “Prime” members who took a dozen flights per year would save up to £420 , or more than the times the cost of the subscription Ryanair said the scheme was limited to 250,000 members on a first come, first served basis.

But the Irish airline has now announced it will be scrapped after just 55,000 people signed-up.

Ryanair said all those existing members will continue to get exclusive monthly low fare offers until October next year, but no new members will be allowed to sign up.

Dara Brady, Ryanair’s chief marketing officer, called the scheme a “no-brainer” for frequent flyer when launching it back in March.

But speaking now, he said: “Over the years, customers have asked for a Ryanair members scheme, so we trialled this ‘Prime’ scheme over the last eight months.

“To date, we have signed up over 55,000 Prime members, generating over €4.4m (£3.86m) in subscription fees. However, our Prime members have received over €6m (£5.26m) 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. We are grateful to our 55,000 Prime members who signed up to this Prime trial over the last eight 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.”

He went on: “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.”

Ryanair recently made a change so that passengers have to use to use digital boarding passes only. Since November 12. passengers will no longer be able to download and print a physical paper boarding pass. Instead, they will have to use the digital boarding pass generated in the “myRyanair” app on their mobile device -smartphone or tablet -during check-in process to board any of its flights.

RYANAIR will not moved forward with a planned subscription service saying it was too expensive.

The budget airline launched a trial of the subscription service in March which offered fee-paying passengers discounts on fares.

But it today revealed it was scraping the scheme, revealing that it was costing more money than it was bringing in.

The Ryanair ‘Prime’ membership cost £79 for 12 months, which worked out to £6.60 per month.

Ryanair revealed the program had signed up 55,000 subscribers which had generated £3.8 million in subscription fees, but had doled out £5.3 million in fare discounts.

“This trial has cost more money than it generates,” Ryanair chief marketing officer Dara Brady said in a statement.

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“This level of memberships, or subscription revenue does not justify the time and effort it takes to launch monthly exclusive Prime seat sales.”

While the Prime service ended today, the 55,000 members would be able to continue using their subscription for the 12-month period for which they’d paid.

The scheme allowed members who flew 12 times per year to save hundreds on hidden fees, such as reserved seats and travel insurance.

Members were also be granted access to exclusive seat sales, giving them the best deals on flights throughout the year.

According to the low-cost airline, Prime members who flew 12 times per year saved up to £420, more than five times the subscription fee.

And members who flew three times a year with the airline still saved £105 through the new scheme.

Ryanair is not the only budget airline with a membership scheme.

Wizz Air launched its ‘All You Can Fly’ membership, allowing unlimited flights for a yearly fee last year.

The Wizz Air membership costs £500 for an entire year, with 50 routes across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and Asia included in the scheme.

Wizz Air ‘All You Can Fly’ members still have to pay a £9 booking fee for each flight taken as well as other fees like carry-on luggage and checked baggage.

NEW YORK — Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, pleaded not guilty Monday to charges he profited from rigged poker games involving several Mafia figures and at least one other ex-NBA player.

Billups, a five-time All Star and onetime Clippers player and assistant coach who won a championship with the Detroit Pistons, was arraigned in a federal court in Brooklyn on money laundering conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy charges involving a scheme to rig mob-backed illegal poker games in Manhattan, Las Vegas, Miami and the Hamptons.

Both charges carry a maximum punishment of 20 years in prison. Others implicated face charges of running an illegal gambling business, robbery conspiracy and extortion conspiracy.

Prosecutors said Monday that plea negotiations have begun with some defendants, though they didn’t name them.

U.S. District Court Judge Ramon Reyes said he hoped to bring the sprawling case to trial by next September, urging lawyers in the courtroom to “do what you have to do.”

Billups, who wore a dark gray suit during Monday’s brief arraignment, spoke only to answer the judge’s yes or no questions. His lawyer, Marc Mukasey, entered his not guilty plea.

They declined to comment to reporters afterward, but one of Billups’ lawyers has called him a “man of integrity” and said he denies the charges.

“To believe that Chauncey Billups did what the federal government is accusing him of is to believe that he would risk his Hall of Fame legacy, his reputation and his freedom. He would not jeopardize those things for anything, let alone a card game,” Chris Heywood said after Billups appeared in federal court in Portland, Ore., when prosecutors first announced the indictment on Oct. 23.

Billups, 49, was released on a $5-million bond secured by his family’s Colorado home. He must refrain from gambling and can have no contact with other defendants or alleged victims. He has surrendered his passport and can only travel to seven states, including Oregon and New York, and Washington, D.C.

Inducted last year into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame, Billups was arguably the most prominent among more than 30 people charged in last month’s sprawling federal takedown of illegal gambling operations linked to professional sports.

In addition to his arraignment, Billups and his co-defendants, including ex-NBA player and assistant coach Damon Jones, appeared for a status conference on Monday and are due back in court on March 4.

Prosecutors say the poker-rigging scheme utilized sophisticated technology such as altered card-shuffling machines, hidden cameras in chip trays, special sunglasses and X-ray equipment built into the table to read cards.

Jones, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and others are also charged with allegedly scheming to allow gamblers to exploit insider information about players to win NBA bets.

Prosecutors say the poker scheme Billups was involved in defrauded victims of an estimated $7 million starting in at least 2019.

They say he served as a celebrity “face card” that could draw wealthy, unsuspecting players to the games. Prosecutors said during one game, the scheme’s organizers exchanged messages saying one of the victims “acted like he wanted Chauncey to have his money” because he was “star struck.”

Prosecutors say Billups, who earned about $106 million from his playing days, received a portion of the ill-gotten gains. After one rigged game in October 2020, for example, they say he was directly wired $50,000.

The scheme organizers also had to share a portion of their proceeds with the Gambino, Genovese and Bonanno mob families for operating within the illegal poker games run by the New York criminal enterprises, prosecutors said.

Mafia members, in turn, helped commit violent acts, including assault, extortion and robbery, to ensure repayment of debts and the continued success of the operation, they said.

Billups was selected as the third overall pick in the 1997 draft by the Boston Celtics after starring in college for the Colorado Buffaloes. He played 17 years in the NBA, with stints with the Toronto Raptors, Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves, New York Knicks and Clippers.

But he is perhaps most beloved in the Motor City, where he earned the nickname “Mr. Big Shot” for his knack of making clutch shots.

Billups was named the NBA Finals MVP during the Pistons’ title run in 2004 and had his No. 1 jersey retired by the team.

After retiring in 2014, Billups embarked on a career as a TV analyst before pivoting to coaching.

He was hired as Portland’s coach in 2021 and signed a multiyear extension with the Trail Blazers earlier this year after the team missed out on the playoffs for the fourth straight season in 2024. Billups previously served as an assistant coach for the Clippers.

After his arrest, he was placed on unpaid leave and the Trail Blazers named assistant coach and former NBA player Tiago Splitter as interim coach.

Marcelo writes for the Associated Press. Associated Press reporter Michael R. Sisask contributed to this story.

A botched net zero scheme which has caused damp issues in thousands of homes was the result of ”serious failings at every level”, a UK government official has said.

Last month, the National Audit Office found that 98% of the 23,000 homes that had external wall insulation installed under two separate schemes will result in damp and mould if left unaddressed.

Its damning report also found that hundreds of homeowners’ health and safety had been put at immediate risk because the insulation work had not been done correctly.

Appearing before Parliament, Jeremy Pocklington, the most senior civil servant at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, said the failures were “unacceptable”.

These schemes commonly used external wall insulation, which involved fixing insulation boards to the exterior brickwork and then applying render to make it waterproof. It can go wrong when water becomes trapped behind the boards.

The damage also applies to about a third of homes which had internal insulation installed under the ECO4 scheme and the Great British Insulation Scheme, available to residents in England, Scotland and Wales.

More than three million homes have been insulated under a variety of government schemes over the last 20 years. Billions of pounds of public money have been spent on it.

Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee, Mr Pocklington began his evidence session by saying his thoughts were with the families and households affected.

The chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP, said the NAO report findings were the ”worst” he’d seen in 12 years of chairing the committee and accused the department of negligence.

Mr Pocklington said there had been poor oversight of the ECO4 and the Great British Insulation Scheme by Trustmark, the body responsible for overseeing the quality of the insulation work.

However, he added that the department ”did not oversee these schemes in the way that they should have done”.

Independent MP Rupert Lowe said this amounted to ”systemic failure of a government department”.

Acknowledging this remark, Mr Pocklington, said ”there are serious failings at every level of the system that are systemic”, and that the department “didn’t take enough steps to ensure that Trustmark was set up to deliver appropriately”.

Simon Ayers, the chief executive of Trustmark, earlier told the panel of MPs that his organisation had raised the issue of faulty installations with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero from late-2022, but they were “informal operational meetings” and minutes were not taken.

Mr Pocklington explained that the department had been under pressure after dealing with the Covid pandemic and the effect on energy prices of the war in Ukraine.

Labour MP Clive Betts asked Mr Pocklington whether the department would take responsibility for all of the homeowners that have been ”badly treated” under all of the government’s energy efficiency schemes, not just those carried out since 2022.

Mr Pocklington said the focus was on the two schemes which had taken place since 2022.

Asked by Mr Betts if the government would “stand behind” affected homeowners, Mr Pocklington said the government’s responsibility was ”to ensure that the schemes we put in place operate effectively and that there are appropriate systems of consumer protection in place”.

Ukranian president promises accountability after anticorruption bureau announces probe into alleged Energoatom scheme.

Ukraine’s anticorruption agency has launched an investigation into an alleged $100m kickback scheme involving Energoatom, the state-run nuclear power company that supplies more than half of the country’s electricity.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), which operates independently of the government, announced the probe on Monday as the country faces another harsh winter under daily Russian bombardment.

In a statement posted on social media, NABU said that a “high-level criminal organisation” orchestrated the alleged scheme, led by a businessman and involving a former adviser to the energy minister, Energoatom’s head of security, and four other employees.

“In total, approximately 100 million USD passed through this so-called laundromat,” NABU said, without naming the suspects.

“The minister’s adviser and the director of security at Energoatom took control of all the company’s purchases and created conditions under which all contractors had to pay illegal benefits,” according to NABU chief detective Oleksandr Abakumov.

He said the group discussed increasing the kickback rate during work on protective structures at the Khmelnytskyi nuclear plant last October.

Investigators said Energoatom’s contractors were forced to pay bribes of 10 to 15 percent to avoid losing contracts or facing payment delays.

“A strategic enterprise with annual income exceeding 200 billion hryvnias [$4.7bn] was managed not by authorised officials but by individuals with no formal authority,” NABU said.

Zelenskyy calls for ‘criminal verdicts’

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, addressing the nation on Monday evening, urged full cooperation with the investigation. “Everyone who has been involved in corruption schemes must receive a clear legal response. There must be criminal verdicts,” he said.

Zelenskyy’s comments come just months after he was forced to reverse plans to curb the agency’s independence following widespread protests. Eradicating corruption remains a crucial condition for Ukraine’s European Union membership bid, a goal Kyiv views as central to its post-war future.

Energoatom confirmed on social media that its offices were being searched and said it was cooperating with investigators.

Deputy Minister of Energy of Ukraine Svitlana Grynchuk told reporters she was not yet familiar with the case details, but promised a “transparent process” and accountability for anyone found guilty. “I hope that the transparency of the investigation will reassure our international partners,” she said.

Ukraine’s power infrastructure has suffered extensive damage from Russia’s air strikes this autumn, leaving large parts of the country without electricity. Although Moscow has not targeted nuclear reactors directly, Ukrainian authorities say substations linked to them have been repeatedly hit.

NABU released photographs showing stacks of cash, Ukrainian hryvnias, US dollars and euros, stuffed into bags and piled on tables. The agency did not disclose the owners of the seized money.

The agency conducted 70 searches, reviewed more than 1,000 hours of audio recordings, and deployed its entire detective staff over 15 months.

Opposition lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak, a strong supporter of anticorruption reform, said he would introduce a parliamentary motion to dismiss Grynchuk and her predecessor, German Galushchenko, now serving as justice minister. Hrynchuk declined to comment on the proposal, while Galushchenko did not respond to requests for comment.

As Ukraine continues to battle both corruption and Russia’s war, Kyiv’s ability to convince its international partners of reform may prove as critical to its future as the fighting on the front lines.