Little cheer for flyers from airline bosses

The bosses of Ryanair and Aer Lingus both did little to endear themselves to the public yesterday with one vowing to increase baggage charges and the other admitting he would like the bad weather to continue.

Ryanair intends to increase baggage charges until no one takes its flights with luggage that needs to go in the hold, its chief executive Michael O’Leary said yesterday, adding it was likely that “at some point” airlines would start charging even for hand luggage.

His Aer Lingus counterpart Christoph Müller, meanwhile, said good weather affects seat sales but added it would not impact the company’s overall annual performance. “There is an effect from the weather… It won’t have an effect at the end of the year. With August to come, hopefully it will continue to rain.”

Speaking in London, Mr O’Leary said Ryanair had increased its charge for hold luggage by €20 for the summer period. Asked what was the logic behind charging more for summer, he said: “That’s when they are likely to bring more bags.”

Asked if Ryanair would consider charging for hand luggage, he said: “At some point in the future I think it’s likely that airlines will do it, but I can’t get my head round how you would do it. I think it’s unlikely that we will do it.”

Asked if he was considering reducing the amount of air conditioning on flights, Mr O’Leary said: “No. Even I would not do that.”