Now Ryanair raises fears of new hand luggage fee
MORE Ryanair passengers could be forced to pay for hand luggage after it warned it may have to review its baggage policy again.
The budget airline introduced rules in January which mean passengers are no longer able to take two cabin bags on board free of charge.
Larger hand luggage such as wheeled bags have to be placed in the hold at the boarding gate. They are then stowed at no cost.
Smaller bags – which can be the size of a handbag or laptop bag – are still allowed in the cabin.
Only passengers who pay for priority boarding from £5 can take larger items of hand luggage with them onto the plane.
Ryanair said the aim was to speed up boarding by reducing delays caused by passengers struggling to cram bags into overhead lockers.
It estimated the policy would cost it around £45million a year in lost fees.
But its boss Michael O’Leary has said letting passengers check their second, larger cabin bag at the gate is putting too much pressure on baggage handlers during the busiest periods including bank holiday weekends and the summer season.
Finance chief Neil Sorahan told investors the new baggage policy has been ‘very well received’, has speeded up the boarding process and improved punctuality.
But Mr O’Leary said it is also ‘creating a handling issue, particularly at peak periods: bank holiday weekends, summer peak periods’.
He added: ‘There are many flights where we’re now having to put 100, 120 gate bags free of charge into the hold, so if that continues to build, it’s something we may have to look at again.’
If Ryanair does go ahead with a review, it is not known what it has in mind for passengers. But the worst case scenario could be that more passengers will have to pay the £25 standard baggage fee to stow the larger of two items in hold.
Any decision which forces more passengers to pay for baggage is likely to be highly unpopular.
On Monday it emerged that Ryanair is raking in almost £5million a day from extra charges – not including baggage fees.
In total, it generated almost £1.8billion in the year to the end of March from ‘ancillary’ sales, an increase of more than £200million or 13 per cent on the year before.
The airline is also set to cut its window that allows passengers to check in free of charge from four days to only 48 hours.
The new rules come into effect for departures from June 13.
‘Likely to be highly unpopular’