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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.

RAPPER Young Bleed has tragically died aged 51 after suffering a brain aneurysm.

The star, whose real name was Glenn Clifton Jr, sadly passed away on Saturday, his son confirmed.

He had been rushed to hospital in the days leading up to his death after collapsing in Las Vegas.

Young Bleed rose to fame in the 90s with the hit “How You Do That” and went on to release nine studio albums.

The rap icon’s son, Ty’Gee Ramon Clifton, confirmed the tragic news with an Instagram video captioned: “RIP to the biggest legend I know.”

Addressing fans in the clip, he said: “As of November 1st, my dad gained his wings.

“This is a tough topic for me – not sure how it’s going to go. But I am here to clear up a lot of false narratives.”

He added: “I know with him being a legend worldwide, all lot of people were concerned for him, they wasn’t sure what they heard.

“So I’m here to confirm as his oldest child that he has gained his wings.

“My dad was 51 years out when this happened to him… The My dad didn’t have no real health issues, these are just chapters in life.

“I hope after this video that people that are going through grieving moments find peace in this video.

“My dad like most as you get in [older] in age take had high blood pressure. He would take his medicines… Once he collapsed he did pass from the aneurysm, the bleed to the brain.”

The late rapper’s mother has also set up a GoFundMe page to help cover the cost of medical and funeral expenses. 

She had started the page when he had been hospitalized and admitted it was ‘completely unexpected and has turned our world upside down.’

Young Bleed was born on June 6, 1974, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and his passion for music was sparked at nine-years-old.

He shot to fame in the 90s and worked with fellow rappers C-Loc, Max Minelli, J-Von, and J-Von’s younger brother Chris Hamilton.

They created the group Concentration Camp in 1995 and his song with C-Loc How You Do That was released two years later, seeing him rise within the industry.

The song peaked at No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B and Hip Hop album charts the following year.