Ryanair is considering increasing the bonus it offers employees for stopping people from carrying large luggage. The staff are currently receiving €1.50 (£1.30) to stop passengers on Ryanair flights from attempting to bring too-large bags.
Statement from Ryanair regarding bonus increase
Regarding the bonus increase, Ryanair said
“We are determined to eliminate the scourge of oversized bags, which delay boarding and are clearly unfair to the over 99% of our passengers who comply with our baggage rules.”
Mr O’Leary told RTE’s Morning Ireland, “We’re thinking of increasing it [the bonus]” to stop people from bringing oversized bags.
Ryanair said oversized baggage fees are only paid by a small minority of passengers.
“Our message to those 0.1% of passengers is simple: please comply with our generous bag rules, or you will be charged at check-in or at the gate,” the airline said.
Mr. O’Leary said his airline was already struggling with that amount of baggage taken on planes. He added,
“That’s one of the reasons we are so aggressive about eliminating the scourge of passengers with excess baggage.”
The chief executive said over 99.9% of passengers follow the baggage rules correctly and referred to “sizers” located within the airport that can measure bags.
“We are happy to incentivise our staff with a share of those excess baggage fees, which we think will decline over the coming year or two,” he said.
Luggage policy of Ryanair
With every ticket, Ryanair currently allows a small carry-on bag—with a size capped at 40 cm x 20 cm x 25 cm and a weight of 10 kg. However, this is set to increase to 40 cm x 30 cm x 20 cm as a result of minimum standards being brought in by the EU.
When booking with Ryanair, passengers can additionally agree to certain size rules and conditions and pay to bring additional luggage on the aircraft.
Ryanair announced a surge in profits for the April–June period, coinciding with Mr. O’Leary’s remarks.
It said that the timing of Easter and an increase in fares helped boost earnings after tax to €820 million (£710.3 million) for the period, up from €360 million a year earlier.
Earlier this year, a court in Salamanca fined Irish low-cost airline Ryanair 147 EUR (£127) to reimburse a passenger’s hand luggage charges for five flights between 2019 and 2024.
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