Ryanair ramps up baggage charges

If you want to take luggage onto your flight, it will now set you back an extra £5 each way.

Budget airline Ryanair has ramped up the charges passengers face for carrying a piece of checked luggage onto the aircraft by £5 – but only for the summer.

You’ll now be charged £20 each way for taking on luggage lighter than 15kg, up from £15, while bags weighing between 15kg and 20kg will set you back £30 each way, up from £25. In a brazen display of profiteering, the charges will only apply from June until September 21st – in other words, the peak travel times for summer holidays.

The airline has justified this, saying that it will encourage passengers to travel without hold baggage, highlighting that three quarters of passengers do so already. That’s all well and good, but personally I don’t fancy my chances of getting enough clothing for a fortnight in Spain into my hand luggage.

Let’s see how these charges compare to a few other airlines, EasyJet, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.

British Airways

All flights on British Airways have a free baggage allowance, though how much you can take on depends on which class of travel you book. There are then charges for any additional bags you take on board.

Here are the allowances for all flights except those to Brazil, Kenya, Nigeria and connecting journeys between India and USA/Bermuda/Canada.

Ticket type	Number of bags	Weight per bag	1st extra bag charge	Further extra bags charge
First Club World	Three bags	Up to 32kg	£72	£72
Club Europe	Two bags	Up to 32kg	£28	£28
World Traveller Plus	Two bags	23kg	£72	£72
World Traveller Y Class (full fare economy)	Two bags	23kg	£72	£72
World Traveller/ Euro Traveller / Domestic	One bag	23kg	£34 / £30 / £30	£77 / £30 / £30

*Bag charges based on paying in advance on ba.com. Charges will be higher if paying at the airport

Virgin Atlantic

As with British Airways, passengers with Virgin enjoy a free checked baggage allowance, and again this varies depending on the class of your ticket. There are only three adult categories of ticket to consider thankfully.

Ticket type	Number of bags	Weight per bag
Upper Class	Three bags	Up to 32kg
Premium Economy	Two bags	23kg
Economy	One bag	23kg

There is also a flat charge for extra baggage, no matter what your class of ticket. The first additional bag will set you back £32, while subsequent bags will cost you £72. Again, this is based on paying in advance online – it will cost you more if you leave it until the day itself to settle these charges.

EasyJet

Ryanair’s budget airline rival EasyJet sadly does not have such a simple process when it comes to baggage. If you want to check luggage into the hold, you will have to pay a fee. However, this fee varies depending on where you are planning to fly to. What’s more, it’s only after you’ve gone through the rigmarole of finding a flight and begun the application process that you can find out what that charge will be.

To give you an idea of the sort of charges you may face, I’ve put together the table below based on a range of return flights to various destinations from London.

Destination	Flight dates	Baggage charge
Agadir, Morocco	Depart 14th June, return 21st June	£28
Amsterdam, Holland	Depart 14th June, return 21st June	£18
Barcelona, Spain	Depart 14th June, return 21st June	£22
Edinburgh, Scotland	Depart 14th June, return 21st June	£18
Kos, Greece	Depart 15th June, return 22nd June	£28
Pisa, Italy	Depart 14th June, return 21st June	£22
Tel Aviv, Israel	Depart 14th June, return 21st June	£28

Paying for hold baggage entitles you to a luggage allowance of up to 20kg. This is not limited to a single bag either, so you can take a couple of bags without incurring any additional charges, so long as collectively they do not weigh more than 20kg. You can buy additional weight in advance via the EasyJet website at a rate of £10 per kg.

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Ryanair’s defence of this increase is that its fares are much cheaper than its main rivals, so even if you pay for the baggage, you’ll still be better off than if you had gone with one of the firms’ rivals. That’s all well and good, but Ryanair has also increased its fares!

Alongside its increase in baggage charges, Ryanair also announced a 12% increase in fares. Budget rival EasyJet has also warned the public to expect higher fares in the coming months, while The International Air Transport Association has predicted that airfares will rise by around 8% on average

It’s all down to the rising cost of fuel – it’s not just motorists who are suffering from the increase in the price of oil, but airlines too. And the fact that the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has opted against increasing its production levels (which would have curbed the price rises) means that airlines have some tough choices to make.

Clearly we are all going to have to get used to paying a bit more for our breaks in the sun.

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