Ryanair will trial a ”zero bag” policy on flights aimed at business travellers from the autumn ” potentially charging passengers more for them.
From October, the no-frills airline will ban checked bags from some flights that have a high number of business travellers in a bid to cut its ground handling costs.
The airline”s deputy chief executive, Howard Millar, said the trial would affect some departures at key times of the day on routes popular with business passengers.
”It may be that the first flight in the morning has no baggage and the second does,” he said.
Millar said the new policy would enable Ryanair to avoid paying for baggage handlers on some flights. ”The cabin crew open the gate and check boarding passes. It will take out a whole layer of costs.”
However, he said Ryanair, which ranked as business travellers” third most-used carrier in the latest Barclaycard Business Travel Survey, might make passengers pay more for such flights.
”Maybe there will be a premium, because the aircraft will turn around much quicker and there will be less congestion; we have not worked on that one yet.”
In another cost-cutting move, the airline will install check-in kiosks at Stansted and Dublin from October. Millar said kiosks meant check-in staff numbers could be reduced and fast bag drops could be introduced.
Mobile phone usage will be introduced on 40 aircraft by Christmas with the first 10 based at Dublin having the technology installed by October. It allows up to 10 passengers to make calls at a time within 10 minutes of take-off and landing. Normal roaming charges apply, but Millar said he expected the majority of users to send text messages rather than talk.
Ryanair is seeking more money-making opportunities after seeing after-tax profits in April, May and June nosedive 85 per cent year on year to ”21 million due mainly to the price of oil.
For more stories on Ryanair, click here.
Gary Noakes