RYANAIR has finally cut its second free hand luggage policy after years of threatening to allow only one bag on-board.
The Irish airline said it was making the decision now as small secondary bags have caused “boarding and flight delays” throughout their summer 2017 programme.
Until now, Ryanair has allowed passengers to carry one cabin bag along with an additional small bag – such as a shopping bag or backpack – for free.
But the carrier has announced it is axing the policy as “too many customers are availing of Ryanair’s two free carry-on bags service, and with high load factors, there is not enough overhead cabin space for this volume of carry-on bags.”
From November 1, all non-priority customers will be asked to check their second bag – bags with wheels and anything bigger than 10kg – into the hold at the boarding gate.
This will be free of charge, according to the airline.
Ryanair spokesperson Kenny Jacobs said the new bag policy changes will cost the airline more than €50 million per year in reduced checked bag fees.
“This will speed up the boarding of flights and eliminate flight delays being caused by not having sufficient overhead cabin space on busy flights to accommodate over 360 (182 customers x 2 bags) carry-on bags,” Jacobs said.
“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.”
Once the new policy is brought in this November, only priority-boarding customers will be permitted to bring two carry-on bags onto Ryanair planes.
Priority boarding costs an additional €5 per person, per flight.
Ryanair also announced plans to increase check-in bag sizes from 15kg to 20kg to reduce the amount of priority-boarding passengers bringing two bags onto flights after the second free bag policy is axed.
The airline has also reduced the standard check-in bag fee from €35 to €25 for a 20kg bag.
