Ryanair cabin bag: Budget airline to refund passenger £124 after court rules hand luggage not an 'add-on' charge

A Spanish court ruled that hand luggage ought to be classed as an air travel essential. The budget airline was reprimanded by the court after charging the passenger to take hand luggage onto the flight.

The ruling by the a Salamanca court is the latest victory by passengers using the budget airline, with the case outlining that hand luggage should not incur any additional fees. The judge is said to have based his ruling on a 2014 decision by a top EU court.

According to that judgement, hand luggage "must, in principle, be considered an indispensable element of passenger transport and that its carriage cannot, therefore, be subject to a price supplement." The judge has now ordered the air traveller to be reimbursed for hand luggage costs they incurred over the course of five separate flights which took place between 2019 and 2024.

It follows another judgement from a Spanish court, which saw two passengers claim a separate victory against the carrier. Spanish lawyer Isaac Guijarro, who represented passengers in court, said the ruling was a "huge win for travellers everywhere."

The lawyer cited Article 97 of Spain's Air Navigation law in the claim, which outlines that airlines are "obliged to transport not only the passenger, but also, and without charging anything for it, the objects and hand luggage that they carry with them." He added: "They can only deny boarding of these items for security reasons, linked to the weight or size of the object, but in this case they were typical cabin suitcases' that did not exceed 55x35x25cm".

In response, Ryanair flagged its "generous" hand luggage policy. A spokesperson for the airline said: “Ryanair allows each passenger to carry a generous (40 x 25 x 20 cm) personal bag on board as part of the basic air fare, with the option to add extra bags for an optional fee should they so wish. This policy promotes both low fares and consumer choice, and is fully compliant with EU law, as upheld by several recent Spanish court rulings, including in Coruña, Segovia, Ontinyent, Seville, and Madrid.”