Irish low-cost airline Ryanair will start closing check-in and bag drop 60 minutes (up from 40 minutes) before flights from November – giving passengers more time to get through airport security.
From Tuesday 10 November, Ryanair's check-in and bag drop services at all the airports it operates at will start closing 60 minutes prior to scheduled departure – up from 40 minutes currently.
"This will allow these 20% of our customers (who check in a bag) more time to clear through airport security and passport queues, and get to their departure gate on time, especially during busy travel periods when some of these airport queues can be longer," said Ryanair's CMO Dara Brady.
This, they said, will reduce the "very small number of passengers" who currently miss their flight departure as they are getting stuck in these airport queues.
Self-service
Ryanair is also installing more self-service bag-drop kiosks (giving passengers the ability to check in bags and print bag tags) across its network, with over 95% of airports expected to have these kiosks by October.
This means a quicker bag-drop service, less queuing at airport desks, and a more timely service "for the 20% of our customers who still wish to check-in a bag, while the 80% who do not check-in a bag will be unaffected" by this 20-minute change, according to Brady.
"They will continue to check in online before they arrive at the departure airport, and they can go straight through airport security to their departure gate," he said.
