One of the world’s most divisive airlines, Ryanair is also one of the largest – the ultra-low cost carrier recorded more than 208 million passengers in the year ending March 2026. This represents a 4 per cent increase on the previous year – passenger numbers continue to grow, despite the controversy the airline generates.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is currently investigating Ryanair over mandatory fees that parents must pay to sit with their children on its flights, a charge of around £8. The CMA will determine whether this is unfair under consumer law, an investigation that Ryanair deems as “bogus”.
The airline’s business model is built around stripped-back service and what it claims are the lowest fares in Europe, “making travel affordable for everyone”. At the start of this year, Ryanair’s average one-way fare was €44 (£38), although you can pay as little as £30 for a return from London Stansted to Barcelona this July.
Those cheap fares are only available if you’re prepared to fly light. Like other ultra low-cost carriers, Ryanair makes a tidy profit from ancillaries – €4.99bn (£4.31bn) in the last financial year, which equates to €24 (£21) per passenger, up by 6 per cent on the previous year.
That revenue streams in from unbundled charges, which can be added at the point of booking, from luggage to speedy boarding. These are the discretionary add-ons worth spending on, and those that aren’t…
Luggage
Ryanair staff have a keen eye on luggage compliance (Photo: Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty)Gone are the days you could cram all your weekend clothes and mini toiletries into a compact cabin case and ram it in the overhead lockers for free. All you’ll get with your fare is a randomly allocated seat and the ability to slip a small (40x20x25cm) bag under the one in front.
So, either you get creative and wear your entire wardrobe on the flight by whatever means you can, or accept that it’s probably going to be worth spending a bit for a cabin or checked-in bag.
Compared to its rivals, this is one area in which Ryanair is a little more generous (relatively speaking) – rather than using dynamic pricing, it publishes its baggage fees: between £12 and £36 for two cabin bags depending on the route, up to £45 for one 10kg checked-in bag, and up to £81 for a 23kg checked-in bag.
A word of warning: play it safe. Ryanair will be happy to charge an additional £13 for every kilo your bag is overweight, and if it exceeds the airline’s dimension limits, you’ll pay for that privilege too – up to £75 at the gate if a small bag is too big to fit under the seat.
Airline and ground handling staff earn a modest commission for weeding out anyone who pushes the limits. We’ve even seen a cardboard box used to enforce bag dimensions at one airport, and online forum discussions of bags that meet the measurement requirements at check-in, only to fall foul at the gate.
At a time when expensive jet fuel is eating into airlines’ profits, expect these rules to be administered with even more stringency.
Priority boarding
You can no longer purchase this queue-jumping pass on its own – and that’s a good thing, since it’s of little value.
One of Ryanair’s selling points is that it serves plenty of regional airports in interesting destinations, from Béziers in southern France to Dakhla in the disputed territory of Western Sahara. This often means passengers board the plane on the tarmac after a bus transfer from the airport terminal, rather than an air bridge, which effectively renders priority boarding purchases pointless when you’re jostling to get to the stairs with everyone else getting off the bus.
Paying for the privilege of boarding first is pointless if you’re shuttled to the plane by bus (Photo: EyesWideOpen/Getty)Priority boarding passes are now bundled with cabin baggage purchases (see above). This being Ryanair, there’s more than one way to purchase. You can do it via one of several fare structures (regular, plus, flexi plus) which can increase the basic price by as much as 200 per cent, or you can stick with the basic (travel light) fare and add priority boarding with two cabin bags later in the booking process, which is cheaper but does not include seat selection (see below).
On a test booking from Gatwick to Alicante in mid-July, the basic fare was £35.99, with priority boarding plus two cabin bags an additional £22.22, bringing the total to £58.21 one way.
Choosing the more expensive regular fare – which includes priority boarding, a reserved seat and one 10kg cabin bag – came to £67.52, almost £10 more.
Seat selection
Ryanair’s longest routes from the UK are to the Canary Islands and Cyprus, at more than four hours and 30 minutes. Even so, choosing a seat is an unnecessary expense – anything from £9 per passenger per flight, to £25.50 for a front row seat with extra legroom. Bring a book or a distraction and look forward to your arrival.
In May this year, the airline’s punctuality statistics stood at 91 per cent of flights arriving on time, so the likelihood of being on the plane longer than planned is low. The airline’s low-cost model relies on fast turnarounds.
Families must pay to sit together on the plane (Photo: Mindaugas Dulinskas/Getty)There are a few exceptions to this rule: if you physically need more room, or if you’re a parent (pending the CMA investigation), you have no choice but to pay for this privilege. Special assistance seats are, however, reserved free of charge.
Rows two to six are designated “get off quick” and typically cost around £16 per flight – the only instance in which that could be beneficial is when disembarking at airports in the Schengen area where EES queues are currently sluggish, since it could be advantageous to be at the front of the line.
Security fast track
This is another low-value purchase, which can cost as much as £14 per person. Check in online before you get to the airport (Ryanair is now “paper free” and will charge you £55 if you request a boarding pass at check-in), arrive in good time to drop any checked-in bags, and to navigate the security queues without paying for the privilege.
Travel insurance
This isn’t one to add hastily during the laborious Ryanair booking process. Do your research separately and make sure the cover is adequate for your needs.
Some airports in the Schengen Area are experiencing immigration queues thanks to EES checks (Photo: Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty)Pre-paid credit for on-board food, drink and duty-free purchases
Forget this revenue-generating scheme and come prepared with your own food for your flight (depending on what you’re allowed to take through security) or consider purchasing at the airport, although this also comes at a premium. Take an empty water bottle and fill it after security – most terminals now offer this facility.
The fees you can’t avoid
Families must pay £25 for an under-two to sit on a parent’s lap, each way. They must also pay £8 for one adult to select a reserved seat, for which four under-12s can be added to sit with them “for free”. In practice, there are reports of families who have found this to be problematic during the booking process, and been charged for each family member.
Two items of baby equipment are carried free of charge per child – one pushchair plus one car seat, booster seat or travel cot, but additional items are charged at £15.
Other items such as bikes, skis, golf clubs and musical instruments are also chargeable, costing between £40 and £60 per item, per flight.
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