No-frills carrier Ryanair is to introduce a £2 charge for passengers wishing to check in at the airport. The charge will be made for bookings made after September 20 this year.
The Irish carrier says that the charge has been introduced to discourage passengers from checking in luggage, and to cut queues and overcrowding. At the same time Ryanair is to remove the £2 charge previously payable for those wishing to check in online, and as an added incentive those checking in at ryanair.com will benefit from complimentary priority boarding (chargeable at £2 for other customers). Says spokesperson Peter Sherrard:
"Ryanair's web check-in and priority boarding service has proven very popular among passengers by freeing them from check-in queues and departure gate queues. However clearly charging for this service has acted as a disincentive. We expect that providing this service free of charge will significantly increase usage."
For hand-luggage only passengers always able to check in online and print off their boarding pass this move may be welcomed. But what about those needing to check in luggage for their trip – they already pay £5 per piece of luggage, and are now faced with an extra £2 charge for the privilege.
The carrier's "generous" 10kg limit for hand luggage is somewhat less so when compared to Easyjet's allowance of being "able to lift your bag safely into the overhead lockers without assistance". And of course if every Ryanair passenger does choose to check in online (and therefore benefit from priority boarding), the service will become slightly obsolete.
For more information visit ryanair.co.uk.
Report by Mark Caswell
