The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has told Gatwick Airport it must revise its baggage and check-in charges.
The ruling follows a 2009 appeal from Ryanair, which argued passengers travelling with hand luggage only, having checked in online, should not pay the same as travellers checking in at the airport with hold baggage.
A Ryanair spokesman said Gatwick’s charging regime had been “discriminatory”, prompting the appeal to the CAA.
“All passengers are charged for check-in facilities, even though all Ryanair passengers check-in online and the majority travel with only hand luggage,” he said.
“Ryanair passengers have therefore been subsidising the check-in costs of airlines that do require passengers to use these inefficient, expensive, facilities.”
The CAA found in favour of Ryanair, saying Gatwick did not fully comply with airport groundhandling regulations.
A CAA spokeswoman said the airport had “failed to use objective and transparent criteria in setting its charges”.
The aviation body ruled that Gatwick must “consult interested parties effectively in order to revise its pricing structure for check-in and baggage processing by no later than 1 April 2012”.
The Ryanair spokesman said the airline had welcomed the CAA’s findings, saying it had “far-reaching implications”.
He said: “Ryanair is determined to enforce the principle of non-discrimination, affirmed today by the UK CAA, and will undertake a review of charging structures at monopoly airports throughout Europe to ensure that Ryanair passengers are not forced to pay for services or facilities they do not use.”
Gatwick Airport has admitted a lack of objectivity in bundling baggage charges with check-in charges.
A Gatwick spokeswoman said the airport had “not used objective criteria when setting one aspect of its charges, namely that it failed to sufficiently differentiate between passengers with hold baggage and those passengers checking in online who carried no hold baggage as the latter category increased”.
She said that with more than 80 airlines operating out of Gatwick, all with varying requirements, there are “certain challenges when it comes to seeking consensus on pricing structure”.
However, Gatwick plans to carry out a consultation later this year to revise the structure of check-in desk and baggage charges.
The Gatwick spokeswoman said the airport had recognised this as “an area of contention”, but that full compliance with CAA directives would be in place by April 2012.