THE ERA OF airline passengers trying to sneak overweight bags onto planes as hand luggage – in the hope that they might escape extra charges for having to check it in – may be coming to an end.

Luggage handlers Servisair have begun at initiative at Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport where employees are offered a bonus for every item of a passenger’s hand luggage which they identify as being over the permitted size and weight limits.

Employees who identify ten items of offending hand luggage – which must then be transported in the hold of the aircraft, forcing passengers to pay often exhorbitant fees – will be paid a weekly bonus of £5.

The charge more than pays off – with the most prominent Servisair customer, Ryanair, charging passengers between €35 and €85 on some flights to bring luggage in the hold of an aircraft.

One staff member told the Daily Mirror that the staff were “pleased, to be honest” with the new regime, because it meant “we can earn a few extra quid.”

A statement from Servisair this afternoon said that the handler’s customers, including Ryanair, offered incentives for ground handlers “to achieve contracted service levels” based on indicators like on-time performance, and lost baggage stats.

Some airlines – though the statement did not say which – also included excess baggage revenue as one of the performance indicators they had written into their contracts.

“In the case of Liverpool John Lennon and this contract, Servisair have taken the decision to pass some of this performance commission on to the frontline staff,” the statement said.

“This does not in any way affect the travelling public who at all times are aware of the terms and conditions relating to baggage allowance.”

Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara said the airline had not implemented the system, but added that passengers who were travelling with hand luggage would already have been alerted to the size and weight limits imposed at the time of their booking.

Servisair acts as a baggage handler for over two dozen airlines in Dublin, including BMI, Delta, Etihad, Iberia, Monarch, Thomas Cook and US Airways. Ryanair operates its own baggage handling operations in Dublin.