Ryanair may boost staff bonuses for catching oversized luggage, including for French flights

Budget airline Ryanair is mulling over plans to increase bonuses for staff who catch passengers travelling with oversized luggage. 

The low-cost carrier believes increasing the bonus will help incentivise team members to intercept travellers who are breaking luggage weight and size rules, and reduce delays for other passengers.

“We are determined to eliminate the scourge of oversized bags, which delay boarding and are clearly unfair on the over 99.9% of our passengers who comply with our baggage rules,” said the airline. 

“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,” it added. 

Having to deal with oversized luggage – particularly if it must be placed into the plane’s hold – can cause delays that ripple across Europe’s airports. 

The airline is also urging the EU to toughen rules against striking air traffic controllers after action at the beginning of the month resulted in hundreds of Ryanair flights being delayed or cancelled. 

Further changes to baggage rules 

Currently, fines for taking oversized baggage onto a Ryanair flight can reach up to €75, but staff who catch a person doing so only receive a €1.50 bonus per passenger intercepted.

“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,” said Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary. 

The airline is also planning to increase the maximum limits for carry-on luggage, with a new maximum size of 40 x 30 x 20cm (compared to the current 40 x 20 x 25cm) and a maximum weight of 10kg, to be stored under your seat. 

The new rules are set to come into force over the summer season, but as of July 22 are not in place. 

This means the airline will provide a more generous policy than the proposed new EU-wide minimums. 

Brussels is also proposing that passengers be allowed to bring a second piece of overhead luggage on board for free. However, airline lobbies are against the move, arguing that it could force them to increase ticket prices. 

Mr O’Leary believes the new rules will not come into place as there will not be enough space on flights to comply with the proposals. 

“We’re flying largely full flights, about half the passengers can bring two bags and the other half can only bring one – because that’s all that fits in the plane,” he said.

“We’re already struggling with that amount of baggage. That’s one of the reasons we are so aggressive about eliminating the scourge of passengers with excess baggage,” he added.