Scratch cards on board

Ryanair Lotto: why you shouldn’t buy tickets

There are lots of raffle tickets to buy on board Ryanair flights. They are advertised with great prizes and charity donations.(Bild: Michael Pichler)

Anyone who has ever traveled with the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair knows it: flight attendants degraded to salesmen offer colorful scratch cards at lofty heights and promise great prizes and support for charities. Krone+ reveals the opaque, huge business behind it all.

The flight to Bergamo is smooth, the Prosecco warm, time passes slowly. So a scratch card on offer can't hurt: Two euros per scratch card or five euros for a whole pack? After all, there's the chance to win a million euros, cash prizes or an electric car, the flight attendant promises. "Has anyone ever won before?" is the innocent question. "Yes, of course, all the time," she says kindly and pulls out the ATM machine. Around 20 raffle tickets are sold on board that day - with 2,000 to 3,600 flights operated by Ryanair every day, that's a pretty penny.