Ethiopian Review

Ryanair, you either love them or loathe them. I’m firmly in the loathing camp. Of course I’m naturally predisposed to like anything that’s cheap, so I’m shocking myself, but there’s something about all those underhand charges that sticks in the craw.

Now they have gone a stage further, and propose cutting the already no-frills service to something akin to getting on a coach – only slightly less glamorous.

The thing that really irks me is that they’re not just making life awkward for their passengers this time – they are affecting everyone else in the airport too. So what’s the plan?

Apparently they are going to get passengers to carry their own baggage to the plane. So there’s no dropping things off at the desk, you cart it through security, round the duty-free shops, across the huge expanse of airport, and to the waiting plane.

This already puts me off. If you have ever traveled with kids, the suitcases, travel cot, car seats and other general assorted paraphernalia, you’ll know it’s a struggle to get from the car to the desk, let alone any further. You can kiss goodbye to airport browsing or eating. You’ll just have to huddle in a quiet corner as your kids go out of their mind with boredom.

I’d rather eat my own arm.

But it also occurs to me that those people who opt to cart things around in return for a bargain are going to be getting spectacularly in the way.

Getting through security and the x-ray machines already takes anything up to an hour as people try to coordinate hand luggage, coats and mobile phones. If you start throwing suitcases into the mix, you can expect to spend a good portion of your holiday in the airport.

And browsing the airport shops is a calm boredom beater, which will just become a massive irritation if you have to clamber over massive suitcases in order to get to the perfume counter.

And my final worry? Most people in airports have a coat, trousers with pockets, and their hand luggage, and still spend about 20 minutes searching for their boarding pass. If you add in the suitcase, you may never actually get on the plane at all.

There is, fortunately, a ray of hope here. The airports have to agree to it. So come on BAA, don’t let us down, chuck a bucket or 50 of cold water over Michael O’Leary’s latest hare-brained scheme, and keep the irritations of the airport down to a dull roar.

I know, there are up-sides to this scheme. Those wiling to cart their bags could save the £20 Ryainair charges to check bags in, and apparently they’ll get cheaper tickets into the bargain. But frankly I reckon the price everyone else will pay for these savings is just too high.

By Sarah Coles | walletpop