Ryanair boss plans to price luggage out of hold

Ryanair will increase its baggage charges, the budget airline's boss Michael O'Leary said today, in a move that could see the charge for hold luggage increase well over the standard €20 fee per piece, each way.

O'Leary said he wants to halve the number of passengers checking in a bag from the present 20 per cent, because eliminating checked-in bags cuts his airliners' fuel burn, reduces handling costs and speeds up turnarounds - all cost-cutting measures that will make Ryanair a leaner, meaner airline giant.

O'Leary said making passengers pay to take baggage into the cabin was also a possibility: "At some point in the future I think it's likely that airlines will do it."

Ryanair is notorious for cutting costs by charging customers for anything in a bid at modifying customers' behaviour. By removing check-in counters to save on wages, clients must print out their own boarding pass or face an €80 penalty to have one printed at the airport.

Even pilots have to fly slower to reduce the fuel burn. O'Leary says Ryanair is trying to fly 2 minutes slower per flight, to save €91 million a year.

Even cabin crew must pay something like €2,800 for their course and then pay for their own uniform.

At the same time, Ryanair demands subsidised landing fees from airports, usually secondary bases over 80 miles outside major cities, to have the low-fares airline's traffic of passengers pass through their airports.

The Malta Tourism Authority spends over €5 million a year in so called 'route development' to open new routes from underserved destinations in Europe from where Ryanair flies.