The rules have been brought in as Ryanair tightens restrictions on what passengers can carry on board its aircraft free of charge.
While hand baggage is free, passengers must pay for anything which gets put into the hold.
Under the new arrangements, which came into force at the start of the year, passengers must fit whatever they buy at an airport duty free shop into their one piece of hand baggage.
They also have to be able to close the bag with the duty free items inside the bag which can weigh no more than 22lbs (10kg) and be no bigger than 21.6 x 15.8 x 7.9 inches.
The policy is enforced by Ryanair’s staff as they check boarding passes at the gate.
Michael O’Leary, Ryanair’s outspoken chief executive, defended the latest changes in the company’s baggage policy.
“We are not running around like Nazis targeting people,” said Michael O’Leary.
“We are doing this because, people with extra bags are slowing down the boarding of our planes. If you turn up at the gate with a bottle of Asti Spumante, all we are saying is shove it in your bag.
Anyone found to have an extra bag – perhaps containing a box of chocolates or bottle of wine – will be given a choice if they cannot cram it into their carry-on bag.
They can either leave it at the airport or alternatively they can have their existing piece of cabin luggage put into the hold, and take the duty free on board.
For this they would have to pay the £28.50 Ryanair charges for checking in a piece of luggage at the airport.
Told you they were crap. (Heard about it from a fellow this morning, then saw it over on Chris’s blog.)
There is a simple solution to this…. Duty Free on Arrival!
Sales made in airports for flights from and to EU airports are not duty free. This means that the purchases can be made on arrival or departure. Some airports already do a “order on the way out, collect on the way back” service…thus delivering on arrival to you. So, in fact there is no need to carry these goods on board at all! Soon “Duty Free on arrival” will be common it makes sense.
Both of the previous comments are stupid. Duty Free on arrival is a good thing, but for specific products it is not possible. Say for example you want a specific bottle of whisky, the departure airport has it but the arrival one does not. Also, think of popular airports that do not yet offer shopping on arrival (Stansted (which is, coincidently, Ryan Airs most used airport) for example).
Bottom line is Ryan Air are overstepping the mark on this one, and I hope many more people use common sense and stop flying with them. Put them out of business for being greedy arseholes.