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Ryanair: Passengers As Baggage Handlers?

By Barbara E. Hernandez | Jun 24, 2009

Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary suggested today that passengers should ferry their own luggage from airport to airplane — but still pay £5 (about $8) per bag to place them in the hold. O’Leary said that getting rid of baggage handlers would help the budget airline save £26 million ($43 million) a year.

“What it means is no more waiting at the carousel, no more losing your bags, no more wasting your life in over-priced airport terminals,” O’Leary told The Telegraph.

It’s unknown how serious O’Leary is about the new proposal. Similar proposals, like creating pay toilets on planes, have yet to materialize because of their complete impracticality. Similarly, baggage handlers and their unions may have something to say about O’Leary’s proposal — and we haven’t even discussed lawsuits. How does one person carry four bags of luggage? And what if they’re disabled? I take O’Leary’s suggestion as a publicity stunt rather than a legitimate proposal.

Tags: Luggage, Proposal, Baggage Handler, Barbara E. Hernandez

Bay Area resident and award-winning business journalist Barbara E. Hernandez has covered tourism, real estate and also blogs about personal finance and technology for AOL Money & Finance's WalletPop. Barbara can also be followed on Twitter at bhern.

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  •  
    1

    jsargent

    06/26/09 | Report as spam

    RE: Ryanair: Passengers As Baggage Handlers?

    First he wants passengers to pay for using the toillets.
    Second he wants to remove toillets to make space for more seats.
    Third he wants us to put the luggage on the plane.
    Say it again, Who will fly the plane?

    Seriously, this is a major security issue and I for one will never fly Ryan Air. It's ok paying for meals, giving discounts for less luggage and self allocated seating but when it involves security forget it.

  •  
    2

    jsargent

    06/26/09 | Report as spam

    RE: Ryanair: Passengers As Baggage Handlers?

    PS. by security I mean putting on your own luggage.

  •  
    3

    bonzai1

    06/26/09 | Report as spam

    RE: Ryanair: Passengers As Baggage Handlers?

    You can't have 130 people running around on the ramp trying to find three of their bags out of 300 or more. It is far too dangerous with the noise, catering trucks, tugs, & fuel trucks. It would be a lawyer's dream!

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