Airport workers in the UK are being paid bonuses to crack down on travellers with bulky hand luggage.
They get £5 for every ten passengers they can ask to pay to check in bags deemed too big to carry on to aircraft.
Ryanair passengers are among those who could face particularly eagle-eyed attention as a result, but other budget airlines are thought to use similar tactics, the Daily Mail reports.
Servisair, the firm providing baggage services for Ryanair at Liverpool John Lennon Airport, is passing a cut directly to workers.
Workers said the policy meant they were likely to be stricter. “If I now see a bag that could be on the borderline, I say, ‘Let’s have a look if that’s too big for the overhead lockers’,†said one.
“Whereas previously we might have let borderline baggage through, now we’ll be more stringent.â€
Ryanair said passengers were made fully aware of its “generous†10kg cabin bag allowance before they arrived at the airport.
“Only those passengers who do not comply with these agreed cabin bag limits will ever be subject to avoidable gate bag charges,†a Ryanair spokesman told the Daily Mail.
“Check-in staff may face abuse from customers told they need to pay extra baggage fees, and some employers regard bonuses as compensation for the stress,†he added.
