RYANAIR HAS SAID it is delaying the introduction of its new cabin bag policy to give people time to get used to it.
The company confirmed this afternoon that changes expected to be brought in next month will now only take effect from 15 January next year.
The airline, prior to the cancellation controversy, were banning bringing wheelie cases as a carry on from next month unless the passenger had booked priority boarding, which costed an extra €5. Instead, all wheelie bags were to be placed in the hold of the aircraft, which Ryanair said was to speed up boarding times.
These rules will only take effect in the New Year.
Ryanair had cut the cost of checking in a bag from €35 to €25 in a bid to encourage people to check in bags and reduce the volume of carry-on bags. The check-in bag allowance has also been increased from 15kg to 20kg for all bags.
The following new rules will now apply from 15 January:
Only those with priority boarding will be allowed to bring two carry-on bags on the aircraft (including wheelie bags). All other customers will only be allowed to bring one smaller carry-on bag on board, while their second wheelie bag will be placed in the hold free of charge at the boarding gate.
Ryanair’s Kenny Jacobs said:
“We will delay the introduction of our new cabin bag rules until 15th January 2018, to allow our customers more time to familiarise themselves with the policy changes. From Jan, we will be restricting non-priority customers to one small carry-on bag (their wheelie bag will be placed in the hold, free of charge at the boarding gate) which will speed up the boarding of flights and eliminate flight delays.
We have already introduced the first phase of the new bag policy which offers our customers lower bag fees for a 33% increase in their check-in bag allowance. This will lead to fewer customers with two carry-on bags at the boarding gates, which is causing flight delays.
The new cabin bag policy will be implemented for all travel after 15 January 2018, and we hope our customers will enjoy the savings of our new simplified bag policy.
The airline said it will fly fewer aircraft during the winter in a move expected to hit up to 400,000 passengers with cancellations.
The airline, which has a fleet of 400 planes, said it would fly 25 fewer aircraft from November and 10 fewer from April 2018.
The change equates to 18,000 flight cancellations. Ryanair said it is offering alternate flights or refunds to the customers affected.
The company said the flight cuts would eliminate all risk of further roster-related flight cancellations “because slower growth creates lots of spare aircraft and crews across Ryanair’s 86 bases this winter”.
The move comes as the airline tries to tackle resourcing problems that led to the airline axing 50 flights a day during six weeks in September and October in a move that affected thousands of passengers.
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