What a carry-on! Ryanair hikes bag in cabin charges to €8
SMALL wheelie suitcases will no longer be brought for free on Ryanair flights after the airline announced it will charge €8 for them from November 1.
Passengers who do not pay for priority boarding are currently permitted to take a small bag on board, while a second larger bag – such as a wheelie suitcase up to 10kg – can be put in the hold free of charge.
This policy was introduced in January as flights were being delayed by people struggling to find space for their luggage in overhead lockers. But Ryanair said the change has resulted in up to 120 bags being tagged at gates for each flight, meaning departures are still being disrupted.
Under the new regulations, passengers will still be able to bring the larger bag on board if they pay €6 for priority boarding – but the number of people who can choose priority boarding is capped at 95 passengers for every 189-seat flight.
From November 1, non-priority customers will be able to bring only one small carry-on bag for free and will have to pay a new €8 charge to store the larger one in the hold. This 10kg wheelie bag must be checked in at the airport bag drop desk. The new policy will go live at boarding gates from November 1, and for all bookings made from September 1.
Any non-priority customers who don’t pay €8 for a 10kg bag while booking their flight can amend their booking at a later date but will have to pay €10 at this point, while anyone who turns up at the gate without having paid for it already will be charged €25. The new bag policy will apply to all travel on or after November 1.
There is some slight solace for passengers as the maximum size of free, small bags allowed on board – such as handbags or laptop bags – will be increased by 40% to 40cm x 20cm x 25cm, but must still be small enough to fit under the seat in front.
Ryanair said it believes some customers may prefer to pay €8 to check their bag in rather than €6 to bring it on board as part of priority boarding. This is because they do not want to drag a wheelie case through airport security, the airline said.
It claimed most passengers will be unaffected by the changes, as 30% already buy priority boarding, and a further 30% only travel with a small carry-on bag.
The airline’s chief marketing officer, Kenny Jacobs, said: ‘This new policy will speed up the boarding and cut flight delays.’
Ryanair claimed it would lose money rather than increase revenue as a result of the new rules as it predicted many passengers would switch from the current €25 checked bags to the €8 checked bags.
But consumer campaigners said the extra charges would put a ‘huge burden’ on families, especially those flying with young children because of the extra luggage and buggies they need.
‘It is bound to annoy and upset passengers,’ said Dermott Jewell of the Consumers’ Association of Ireland.
He said: ‘It will put a huge burden on the family holiday. The timing of this is quite unusual in that there has just been significant negotiations so you can’t help but feel that the time taken to load baggage has had some effect somewhere along the line in discussions.
‘So will it damage the airline? Probably not. Will it hit consumers in the pocket? Certainly. The bottom line is that they really are going to have to step up the quality of their customer service.’
Travel industry expert Eoghan Corry, of the travelextra.ie website, said the change was ‘to speed up the airline’s turnaround of planes at the airport’.
He added: ‘With Ryanair punctuality is king, their business model is cramming in so many flights in a day. So it was the knock-on effect – ten minutes isn’t a big amount of time but multiply that by five and your whole schedule is gone.’
christian.mccashin@dailymail.ie
‘It will cut flight delays’