Ryanair luggage revolt
Angry passengers facing €25 fee if bag doesn’t fit under seat in front
RYANAIR is facing a fresh passenger revolt after the first day of a draconian cabin baggage policy triggered anger and confusion yesterday.
The crackdown means passengers can no longer take a larger bag such as a wheelie suitcase with them on to their flight for free.
Non-priority passengers could be slapped with a €25 charge to put their hand baggage in the hold if it is too large to fit under the seat in front.
Anyone who brings two bags without paying €6 for priority boarding will face Ryanair’s extra charge.
Now, only one small ‘personal’ bag that can fit under the seat in front will be allowed onto the flight. The allowance is now set for bags measuring a maximum of 40cm by 25cm by 20cm.
The change came after tagging bags for the hold at the departures gate caused severe delays on 25-minute turnarounds.
Passengers vented on social media
Ryanair have claimed this change will affect only 40% of passengers as 30% already buy priority boarding and 30% already travel with one small carry-on bag.
But confusion in airports yesterday forced Ryanair to waive the fine. A spokesman said yesterday: ‘While our new bag policy has come in to effect today, we have briefed our gate agents to take a reasonable approach while customers get used to the new rules.’
However, that didn’t stop passengers venting their frustration on social media.
Robert Davidson wrote on Twitter: ‘I suppose it won’t be long before you start charging if people want to travel with both of their arms.’ Another customer said: ‘There are many reasons to boycott Ryanair but the new baggage prices will do for me.’
Others jokingly posted mock images of tiny bags that can fit in the palm of a hand, while one passenger tweeted: ‘What happens when priority booking is full? The bags go in the hold anyway. Just another way to squeeze money out of passengers.’
The change comes as it emerged Ryanair earns €7million a day from ‘add-ons’ and made more than €1billion in six months to the end of September.
A Ryanair spokesman said: ‘Our new bag policy, which was first announced on August 23, came in to effect yesterday and initial reports from the airports and our customers is that it is working well and reducing delays at security and speeding up the boarding process.’
Until yesterday, passengers could take two items of luggage with them, but the larger item would have to be left at the boarding gate and stored in the hold for free.
This policy was introduced in January to cut delays caused by passengers bringing more bags than could fit in the overhead lockers. But it backfired as too many passengers were leaving bags at the gate, causing more hold-ups.
Budget rival Wizz Air also introduced a similarly strict new cabin bag regime yesterday.
Both airlines have now fallen foul of Italian authorities, who say that taking hand baggage is a basic part of flying and that passengers are being misled over the true cost of a ticket.
Italy’s antitrust watchdog has launched an investigation and said in a statement: ‘The request for supplementary pay for an essential element of air transport, such as hand baggage, provides a false representation of the real ticket price… misleading the consumer.’
Ryanair’s new policy is likely to encourage even more passengers to rush to pay for priority boarding.
There has been a surge in the number of passengers paying this premium to bring an extra bag with them since the policy change in January.