During June – September and Christmas 2012, Ryanair will increase the price of its checked-in baggage once again, this time from £20 to £25 per bag. Charges for bags paid through call centres and airports will also increase from £35 to almost twice the price at £60 per bag.

The reason for such price hikes are to discourage passengers from taking too much luggage, says the airline. The prices will stay at £15 during low season months (October to May).

Another increase is in its ‘boarding card reissue penalty’ from £40 to £60, from 15th Jan 2012. It says it’s to “try to persuade the less than 10 passengers per day who refuse/fail to bring their boarding card (despite email reminders) to their departure airport as 99.9% of Ryanair passengers already do”.

Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said: “Over 70% of Ryanair passengers will be unaffected by these changes as they already travel with no checked-in bags and instead use Ryanair’s free of charge 10kg carry on allowance.”

So, will this affect you? Or are you one of the 70% that only take hand luggage?