Ryanair have announced that customers will no longer be allowed to carry wheelie bags on board flights unless they pay a premium of €5,50 (approx. £ 5.00) for priority boarding.
Passengers are now only allowed to take one small bag on board unless they pay for priority boarding. Any other bag will be placed in the hold at the boarding gate.
In order to compensate for changes in their baggage policy which will begin to take effect on 1 November 2017, Ryanair have increased the check-in allowance from 15kg to 20kg. Ryanair have also reduced the fee for putting the baggage in the hold from £35.00 to £25.00.
Ryanair say that the policy will be introduced because there is not enough overhead cabin space and the time taken to secure the luggage in the overhead lockers before take-off is causing flight delays.
Chief marketing officer, Kenny Jacobs, has said, “These bag policy changes will cost Ryanair more than €50m a year in reduced checked bag fees. However, we believe offering bigger bags at reduced fees will encourage more customers to consider checking in a bag, which will reduce the high volume of customers we have with two carry-on bags at the boarding gates, which is causing flight delays due to large numbers of gate bag and cabin bag offloads.”
Priority boarding costs either £5 (€5.50) at the time of booking or £6 (€6.55) one hour before the scheduled departure.
