A budget airline has recently announced changes to its hand luggage allowance policy – meaning holidaymakers flying from East Midlands Airport now have to fork out to take their necessities abroad.
Passengers who travel with Ryanair are familiar with the previous two-bag hand luggage allowance. However, from the beginning of November, those without priority boarding will no longer be allowed to board with two items of hand luggage.
The airline, which flies from East Midlands Airport to popular destinations such as Alicante, Malaga, Dublin and Berlin, said they made the decision because flights are being delayed due to a lack of space in overhead cabins.
From November 1, passengers will only be permitted to carry one small bag such as a handbag or laptop bag on board with them.
Only those who pay for 'priority boarding' will be able to bring two carry-on bags, everyone else will be allowed one small bag but be forced to put their other bag in the hold luggage where they will not be able to access it until they arrive at their destination.
Up until now, travellers have been able to take two cabin bags on board with them for free – but the new rules mean that passengers will now have to cough up an extra £5 if they want both.
It's not all bad news for tourists though. In a bid to encourage passengers to stick to hold luggage, Ryanair has increased its check-in bag allowance from 15kg to 20kg for all bags, and reducing check-in bag fees from £35 to £25.
Ryanair's chief marketing officer, Kenny Jacobs, said: "These bag policy changes will cost Ryanair more than €50 million a year in reduced checked bag fees. However, we believe offering bigger bags at reduced fees will encourage more customers to consider checking-in their luggage. This 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.
"We hope that by restricting non-priority customers to one small carry-on bag – their wheelie bag must be placed in the hold, free of charge, at the boarding gate – this will speed up the boarding of flights and eliminate flight delays being caused by not having sufficient overhead cabin space on busy flights.
"These lower bag fees and increased bag size allowances will come into play for all bookings for travel after November 1, and we hope our customers will enjoy the savings of our new simplified bag policy."
Making the best use of your 20kg allocation is now even more important when flying Ryanair. To avoid excess baggage fees, here's the World's Lightest Trolley Case available in Burton from Matalan, in Middleway Park and Asda, in Orchard Street, priced £45 for the large case or £40 for the medium case.
