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No-frills carrier’s ‘gate bag bonus’ of €1.50 a passenger capped at €80 a month for staff members but ceiling could rise
No-frills carrier’s ‘gate bag bonus’ of €1.50 a passenger capped at €80 a month for staff members but ceiling could rise
Lauren Almeida and agenciesMon 21 Jul 2025 12.26 CESTShare
Ryanair is considering increasing a bonus paid to staff for identifying passengers’ oversized luggage, its chief executive has said.
The Irish budget airline pays staff about €1.50 (£1.30) for intercepting customers who are bringing oversized bags on to an aircraft.
The bonus is capped at about €80 for each staff member a month, the Sunday Times reported at the weekend, citing a payslip from a former employee which listed a “gate bag bonus”.
Passengers are charged a fee of up to €75 for bringing luggage that is larger than they paid for while booking their journey.
Ryanair’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, said on Monday that more than 99.9% of passengers comply with baggage rules, with “sizers” located within the airport.
He said: “We are happy to incentivise our [staff] with a share of those excess baggage fees, which we think will decline over the coming year or two.
“It is about €1.50 per bag – and we’re thinking of increasing it, so we eliminate it.”
Ryanair includes a small carry-on bag – capped at a size of 40x20x25cm and weight of 10kg – with every ticket.
Passengers must pay a fee if they want to bring larger luggage, or if they want to bring multiple bags.
Earlier this month, it emerged that airport staff at Swissport, an aviation company that operates passenger gates at airports, could receive £1.20 for “every gate bag taken” as part of the “easyJet gate bag revenue incentive” scheme.
The European parliament is pushing for airlines to allow passengers to bring on free an onboard personal item and small hand luggage. However, O’Leary predicted the proposal would not come into law due to a lack of space.
Speaking to the business news on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, he said: “We’re flying largely full flights, about half the passengers can bring two bags and the other half can only bring one – because that’s all that fits in the plane.
“We’re already struggling with that amount of baggage. That’s one of the reasons we are so aggressive about eliminating the scourge of passengers with excess baggage.”