Ryanair is famous for its incredibly fast turnarounds, with just 25 minutes scheduled between the time that an aircraft arrives at the gate and when it pushes back from the gate for its next flight. Now, however, cabin crew at Europe’s largest low-cost airline are having to get used to a fast new safety demonstration that has left them spinning on the spot.
Of course, as a budget carrier, Ryanair doesn’t have seatback TV screens or even overhead monitors, so cabin crew have to perform a manual demonstration, physically showing passengers how to buckle and unbuckle a seatbelt, how to put on an oxygen mask, and how to don and inflate a life jacket.
They also have to do all this while keeping in time with a pre-recorded announcement that is played from the front of the plane. Fumble and you’re no longer in time with the announcement… the kind of mistake that Ryanair passengers can be particularly savage about.
Ryanair’s pre-recorded safety announcements are somewhat iconic for the monotone way they are delivered by an announcer with the so-called D4 accent, which is widely considered the most high-class of Irish accents (named after Dublin’s most prestigious postcode).
Think nasal, elongated vowels where every word is clearly and cleanly pronounced.
The D4 accent is known for its slower, more deliberate cadence, although that sometimes left Ryanair cabin crew feeling as if the safety demonstration was taking far too long. Cabin crew complained, and it appears that the airline listened.
Several months ago, the airline started to roll out an updated pre-recorded safety demonstration with a similar voice. At first, cabin crew thought the new demonstration was even slower than the last… but after taking part in the demonstration over several months, some are now saying they’re left spinning trying to keep up.
For context, here’s the old safety demonstration from 2025, which clocks in at 3 minutes and 25 seconds.
And here is the latest 2026 version that is nearly 40 seconds faster than its predecessor:
“We are spinning like ballerinas,” one Ryanair cabin crew said in a TikTok video of the new demonstration. “I agree, no time to even pick up the next kit of demo,” another crew member said in response.
They should at least be thankful that they aren’t working for the Australian flag carrier Qantas, which, in 2024, created a safety video that clocked in at nearly 10 minutes long. The airline listened to feedback and went back to basics earlier this year, slashing the length of time the safety demo runs for.
In April, Alaska Airlines had the opportunity to create its first-ever safety video in its 94-year history after the carrier launched transatlantic flights on Boeing 787 Dreamliners. The safety video will, however, be limited to widebody aircraft only, with the airline having no plans to install seatback screens on its 737 fleet.
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