If passengers were considering trying to sneak on a larger carry-on bag to a Ryanair flight this summer, your plans may be scuppered as Ryanair’s boss is set to make the rules even stricter. Currently if travellers are found to have a bag over the allowance, they are required to pay a £65 charge.
While many people will think having a bag just a few centimetres over the threshold should keep them safe, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary plans to take extra measures to catch out rule breakers before they can board their flight.
O’Leary’s plan is to further incentivise Ryanair staff to make sure all bags are the correct size by increasing their bonus if they catch a traveller with oversized baggage. Therefore, if a staff member correctly charges a passenger for a bag that is too big, they will receive extra rewards.
The chief executive claims since staff started being given rewards for catching out rule breakers, the number of travellers being flagged with oversized baggage had declined. For every £65 baggage charge staff put through, the budget carrier currently gives them €2.50, roughly £2.17.
However, this added bonus is set to rise to €3.50 for each passenger they catch, reports the Express. While this may not seem like the biggest reward, the money could quickly jump up if workers are continually calling out passengers for trying to cheat the system.
Speaking about the incentive, O’Leary said: “The number of outsized bags is falling from, I don’t know, 0.0001 [per cent] to 0.00001. As the numbers fall, I think we will up the rate of commission, from €2.50 to €3.50 or so.”
View 2 ImagesIf bags fail to fit the size requirements, passengers will be charged £65 to put their baggage in hold.(Image: Jakub Porzycki/Getty Images)
He warned: “Everybody must know, do not show up with a bag that doesn’t fit in the sizer because you will be charged.”
All Ryanair flights allow passengers to board the plane with one small personal bag for free that can fit underneath the seat in front of them. The maximum size of this bag is currently 40x30x20cm.
Meanwhile, if travellers want to bring a cabin bag onto the flight, they will need to pay for this service. Able to weigh up to 10kg, this bag is required to fit in the overhead locker at a maximum size of 55x40x20cm.
This reward scheme was initially announced last year as O’Leary said he had no sympathy for “chancers” trying to bring “rucksacks” aboard flights.
At the time, he stated around 200,000 Ryanair passengers annually are charged the extra £65 and forced to put their carry-on luggage in the hold.
Ryanair’s boss said: “We’re the airline with the lowest air fares in Europe. Those are our rules. Please comply with the rules, as 99.9 per cent of our 200 million passengers do, and you won’t have any problem.”
He also claimed if passengers “comply with the bag rules then everyone will board faster” and there would be “fewer flight delays”.
This comes after O’Leary called for airports to be banned from serving alcohol to passengers before early morning flights as he believes this will reduce the number of travellers that exhibit disruptive behaviour while onboard.
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In an interview with The Times, O’Leary said: “It’s becoming a real challenge for all airlines. I fail to understand why anybody in airport bars is serving people at five or six o’clock in the morning. Who needs to be drinking beer at that time?”