The Ryanair boss has spoken out after the airline decided to stop accepting printed boarding passes in order to improve communication with customers, reduce airport costs and save around 300 tonnes of paper each year, and those who fill to secure their digital documents before arrival at the airport will have to pay £55.

He said: "They will still, as they are today, be paying the airport check-in fee. And they know that they have to check in the day before, because we send them SMS messages and two email confirmations, 48 hours before departure and 24 hours before departure. So anybody who shows up not having checked in before they get to the airport? Either they’re stupid or they just ignored our email instructions."

Charities have raised concerns that the digital-only shift could disadvantage passengers with limited technological access.

Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, said: "When looking at updating ticketing, companies must not forget the four million people who have never used the internet and the many others with limited digital skills or do not have a smartphone. There should always be an alternative way of booking and showing tickets that does not disadvantage those who aren’t online."

But the chief executive dismissed the concerns for older customers.

He said: "Rags will have a field day out of the idea that everybody over the age of 50 will no longer be able to fly Ryanair, which is an insult to everybody over the age of 50. A vast number of over 50-year-olds have smartphones. We know that because already over 90 per cent of our passengers are already using smartphones and digital boarding passes.

"There will be some people who won’t have them. But as long as they check-in online before they go to the airport, they’ll be able to pick up a boarding pass at the airport ticket desk, free of charge. Nobody’s going to get stranded, nobody’s going to get left behind. It’ll be much ado about nothing."