Just to put this one to bed, it is DEFINTELY to do with trim. I dispatched EI-CSR out of LBA this morning with 111 passengers, and this was the case. There is a certain passenger number that when it goes under the set number, the blocking off occurs. I think one of the main reasons they do it is because unlike airlines with assigned seating, Ryanair don’t know how many pax they have in bay A,B,C etc, so this is another way to control the trim. (Don’t quote me on that!)

Si – Yeah I have noticed that they have very little control over pax, they should have someone stood under the wing directing pax or a pig which is the best solution.