Ryanair passengers who want to check in bags must get to airport even earlier

Ryanair passengers who want to check in bags will need to get to the airport earlier from 10 November.

Europe’s biggest budget airline says check-in and bag drop services at all its airports will close an hour before the scheduled departure, up from the current deadline of 40 minutes.

The carrier has told The Independent it will open check-in desks earlier as a result of the move.

Ryanair says the aim is “to provide more time for passengers to get through airport security and passport queues which will reduce the very small number of passengers who currently miss their flight departure as they are getting stuck in these airport queues.”

Since the EU entry-exit system became mandatory at all Schengen area frontiers on 10 April, some passengers on easyJet and Ryanair have missed flights because they could not clear passport control in time.

Ryanair says only one in five passengers currently checks in a bag.

The airline’s chief marketing officer, Dara Brady, said: “From Tuesday 10 November, Ryanair customers will see airport check-in and bag drops close 60 minutes before scheduled departure, instead of today’s 40 minutes.

“This will allow these 20 per cent 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.

“The 80 per cent who don’t check-in a bag will be unaffected by this small 20-minute change, as they will continue to check-in online before they arrive at the departure airport and they go straight through airport security to their departure gate.”

Ryanair says it is installing self-service kiosks at over 95 per cent of its airports before October.

When the airline began flying jet aircraft between the UK and Ireland, its check-in deadline was just 20 minutes.

Read more: Getting a handle on cabin baggage – what are the different airlines’ rules?