IRELAND. Ryanair yesterday announced that it plans to end all passenger check-in at the airports from which it operates. The controversial Irish low-cost carrier will introduce its totally online check-in system from October.
And in a phased development with important repercussions for the airport commercial revenues sector, Ryanair also plans to end the traditional checked-in baggage system from next year.
Instead passengers will be allowed to carry more bags through security – two or more, according to the respective airports’ rules – to the aircraft.
According to FT.com only 30% of Ryanair passengers now check in baggage for the hold, compared with some 80% two years ago.
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“We’re going to move away from check-in luggage to more carry-on luggage,” CEO Michael O’Leary told reporters yesterday at a press briefing in London. “This isn’t the end of civilisation as we know it, it only sounds revolutionary. I can assure you it’s not.”
Passengers will still be allowed to carry only one bag onboard (with a maximum weight of 10kg) but O’Leary told reporters yesterday that a second bag could be left with aircraft staff to be loaded and picked up on arrival.
Crucially to travel retail and duty free retailers and food & beverage operators, the airline is currently charging for that second piece – a practice it adopted earlier this year and which included bags containing airside purchases (if they represented a second piece of hand-baggage). This is seen by travel retail industry representatives as one of the most serious threats to the business.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the airline would be “offering unlimited carry-on baggage for free” – but Ryanair told The Moodie Report this morning that the current 10kg limit would remain in place. Overweight items or additional bags would be placed in the hold – but there will be no charge for these, the airline claimed.
A Ryanair spokesman told us: “As long as passengers can carry their baggage to the steps of the aircraft, they can still take a single bag weighing maximum 10kg on board as hand luggage, and the balance will be placed in the hold and delivered on arrival. They will be able to do this for free.
“The details are still being worked out, so we have not finalised a timeframe. You also have to bear in mind that there are different airport security rules in many of the 26 countries we fly to, so passengers would have to comply with those rules.
“The main aim of this move is to bypass airport handling, so we plan to scrap check-in at the airport. Anything that passengers can take through security – or purchase after security – we will allow onboard, or if it’s too large, in the hold.”
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If indeed there will be no charge for additional carry-on baggage, that will represent an important step forward for travel retail. In recent months O’Leary has accelerated his drive to reduce airport handling costs and been unfazed about any impact on airport commercial revenues or on passengers’ desire to purchase airside goods.
Ryanair sees no benefit from such activities – only costs (weight onboard) and competition (to its own onboard activities).
Earlier this month the airline hit out at the advertising campaign by Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) which advised passengers to arrive at the airport 90 minutes before their flights.
In a sign perhaps of what lies ahead, Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara said: “Ryanair’s online check-in has slashed the time passengers have to waste in airports before their flight. Web check-in passengers can now arrive at Dublin Airport 45 minutes before their flight, clear security and skip the DAA monopoly’s retail rip-offs. In a self-serving response to this the DAA has spent hundreds of thousands on advertising to urge passengers to arrive at the airport a ridiculous 90 minutes before their flight.
“The DAA monopoly is simply targeting passengers’ wallets and ignoring passenger service. If, as the DAA claims, all passengers can clear security in 15 minutes then why are they urging them to waste 90 minutes at the airport? Clearly the DAA wants passengers to waste time and money in their overpriced car-parks, shops and restaurants. Ryanair urges its web check-in passengers to ignore the DAA monopoly’s misleading advice and arrive at the airport just 45 minutes before they are due to depart.”
MORE COVERAGE OF RYANAIR
Media pressure builds on Ryanair as low-cost carrier snaps back at ‘duty free’ criticism – 09/02/09
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