Budget travel Ryanair tightens its hand luggage rules
Bonn/Dublin · Ryanair passengers with large hand luggage will have to adjust to new rules from today, Monday. The Irish budget airline wants to control the flood of carry-on suitcases. Here’s what customers need to know.
The scenes were repeated almost daily at Cologne-Bonn airport. Prior to boarding, ground staff distributed small yellow slips of paper to passengers of the budget airline Ryanair, turning their carry-on luggage into cargo hold luggage. The reason was that too many passengers on the Irish airline wanted to take carry-on suitcases or bags into the cabin with them and there was simply not enough space.
And so recently a count was made and only 90 carry-on bags allowed. Every other one had to be handed over on boarding and ended up in the belly of the plane, much to the annoyance of many passengers.
Too much hand luggage is a home-grown problem
However, the problem was home grown as the airline had for years discouraged customers with high fees from handing over their luggage at the counter. Many travellers then had a rethink and relied only on hand luggage on the flight to a holiday in Majorca or a city trip to London, causing considerable problems. The consequence was intense discussions at the gate when customers had to hand over their suitcases.
Now Ryanair is trying to get things under control with new rules. From Monday (15 January) two items of hand luggage will still be carried free of charge. However, the largest – usually the standard cabin-sized wheeled suitcase – will generally only be allowed to be taken into the cabin by those who have paid the surcharge of at least five Euros for “Priority Boarding.” The remaining passengers must now always hand over their largest item of hand luggage at the gate. It will then be transported for free in the aircraft’s hold.
The new rule is intended to avoid delays and to make departures more punctual. Ryanair is also reducing the charges for checked baggage and increasing the weight permitted per suitcase. The cost of checking a suitcase will now cost 25 Euro rather than 35 Euro. And in future, the standard weight will be 20 rather than 15 kilos. “We hope all our customers will welcome the new baggage regulations,” said Ryanair head of marketing, Robin Kiely.
XXL overhead lockers are an answer
Frequent flyers know that Ryanair is not alone in this dilemma. Easyjet, Lufthansa and Air France all today offer hand luggage only in their cheapest fare, and many passengers use this. Nevertheless, Lufthansa “does not really have a big problem with a flood of wheeled cabin luggage,” in its business, explained a spokeswoman. In cases of doubt, employees ask passengers if they want to put their suitcase in the hold. Easyjet also finds this practice the most customer-friendly.
One solution could be larger luggage compartments. Many airlines have already asked manufacturers about this. But it could be some time until the XXL lockers are built into every plane. Until then, airlines will try to overcome the flood of wheeled cabin baggage with new rules or will have to put up with the crowding in planes for the limited space.
Original text: Michael Wrobel (with material from the dpa).
Translation: kc.
