The Ryanair small-bag-only model, Priority Boarding, checked-bag pricing, and what gets you charged at the gate.
Ryanair's baggage model in one sentence
The base Ryanair fare includes only a single small personal bag (40 × 20 × 25 cm, must fit under the seat). Everything bigger costs extra, including a normal-sized cabin bag in the overhead bin. This makes Ryanair fares look extraordinarily cheap on the search results page and somewhat less cheap once you add the things most travellers consider basic.
Priority Boarding + 10 kg cabin bag
Priority Boarding (typically EUR 8–25, varying by route and demand) lets you bring a 55 × 40 × 20 cm cabin bag up to 10 kg into the cabin. This is what most travellers actually want. Buy it at booking; gate prices are punitive.
Checked baggage
Two checked-bag tiers: 10 kg (EUR 12–35 online) and 20 kg (EUR 25–60 online). Pay at booking. Pricing varies by route and load, expect the upper end on summer Friday departures from peak European bases.
Ryanair will not check a bag through to a separate Ryanair flight booked on a different reference. If you are connecting between two Ryanair flights with two separate bookings (a common cost-saving tactic), you must collect, exit security, and re-check between flights. Allow at least 3 hours.
Overweight and oversize
Overweight per kg: typically EUR 11. Oversize cabin bag at the gate (i.e., your 'small' bag does not fit the sizer): EUR 60–70 to put it in the hold. The gate-agent's bag check at Stansted, Bergamo, and Beauvais is systematic and aggressive.
Online check-in and the printing fee
Online check-in is mandatory. Printing a boarding pass at the airport desk costs EUR 55 if you have not checked in online. Ryanair's mobile boarding pass works at every airport on the Ryanair network; download it at check-in time and screenshot as backup.
Tactics for the cheapest Ryanair flight
- Travel personal-item-only, a 40 × 20 × 25 cm soft backpack genuinely fits the sizer.
- If you must take a cabin bag, buy Priority at booking.
- Use a luggage scale at home; airside weighing is strict.
- Pay for a window or aisle seat on flights longer than 90 minutes, Ryanair will deliberately split groups across the cabin if you do not.
- Sign up for myRyanair (free), it remembers documents and avoids re-entry hassles.
Sources & further reading
The fees, allowances and procedures cited in this guide are cross-checked against carrier and regulator publications. For primary sources and official rulings, see:
- IATA, international airline trade body; canonical source for IATA codes, baggage tracking standards and industry statistics.
- ICAO, UN civil aviation agency; the authoritative reference for ICAO codes, safety standards and global aviation policy.
- OpenFlights public dataset, the open airport, airline and route dataset that powers the directory side of FlightHaven.