Ryanair to raise employee bonuses for spotting oversized hand luggage

Irish airline Ryanair has announced that it will more strictly monitor whether passengers’ hand luggage adheres to size restrictions and raise employees' bonuses for spotting rule breakers.

Ryanair will enforce hand luggage limits more strictly

Ryanair has announced that its employees will be stricter with passengers who attempt to board flights with hand luggage exceeding the maximum limit covered in their fare.

Ryanair employees are currently awarded a 1,50 euro bonus for every oversized bag they report a passenger carrying. In November, the airline will raise this bonus to 2,50 per oversized bag, and these bonuses will no longer be subject to a monthly limit.

Ryanair passengers are charged 13 euros for every kilogram that their bag is overweight. The airline justifies these fees by claiming that passengers breaking baggage rules lead to delays, which are “unfair to the 99 percent of our passengers who comply with our baggage regulations”. 

EU plans to scrap hand luggage fees altogether

The news from Ryanair comes a few months after the EU’s Transport and Tourism Committee voted to amend passenger rights regulations to include a ban on airlines charging passengers for small hand luggage.

Under the new rules, airline passengers travelling in the EU will have the right to carry a personal bag, such as a handbag or rucksack, and a small hand luggage bag on their flight free of charge.

Passengers’ personal bags can have maximum dimensions of 40x30x15 centimetres, while the small hand luggage bag may sport maximum dimensions of 100cm and 7 kilogrammes. Airlines will not be allowed to charge passengers any money for carrying these items.

If the committee’s plan receives further approval, transport ticket vendors and retailers will be required to disclose the total booking cost earlier in the booking process, and the EU will introduce a bloc-wide travel compensation form, which should be processed within 14 days.