Ryanair puts up luggage charges in time for summer (and passengers will have to pay to use the toilet too)

New charges: The £15 fee for checked-in bags will be raised to £20 for the summer (file photo)

Ryanair is taking no-frills flights to new heights - by charging for lavatories.

All onboard toilets will become coin-operated, forcing passengers to pay £1 or one euro.

The Irish airline is also cutting the number of loos, meaning there may be only one on planes carrying 189 passengers.

It already charges customers to check in luggage, for online check-in, for onboard snacks and for credit card payments.

Ryanair's Stephen McNamara said: 'By charging for the toilets we are hoping to change passenger behaviour so that they use the bathroom before or after the flight.

'That will enable us to remove two out of three of the toilets and make way for at least six extra seats.'

The airline mooted the idea of toilet charges last year but backtracked after criticism.

It also emerged yesterday that its single bag check-in charge will rise from £15 to £20 during the summer holidays.



The £15 fee for checked-in bags will be in operation again from September.



Mr McNamara said: 'We are determined to incentivise passengers to travel light this summer by increasing our checked-in baggage fees for the months of July and August only.

'Over 70 per cent of all Ryanair passengers will be unaffected by these changes because they travel with no checked-in bags.'

More charges: Spending a penny could soon cost a pound

Rochelle Turner, head of research for Which? magazine, said: 'Ryanair might claim that they are incentivising people to travel light but we think it is more a case of penalising those families who can only go away on holiday during this time.

'Flying with Ryanair is not as cheap as it first appears and we would advise passengers to factor in these extra costs when choosing who to fly with.'

Mr O'Leary first suggested the toilet charges last year but the budget carrier appeared to backtrack on the idea.



However, the airline has confirmed its plans in its latest in-flight magazine, although Mr McNamara said the charges would not be coming in this summer.

Sky high prices: Snacks on no-frills flights can cost nearly quadruple what they would cost in the supermarket

The confirmation of further charges on board comes just as a new survey has shown that low-cost carriers are charging sky-high prices for food and drink.

Passengers pay 374 per cent more for snacks on flights than they would at the supermarket, according to statistics from price comparison site travelsupermarket.com.



When asked about the price of food on board Ryanair aircraft, Mr McNamara said: 'I would like to know how much Tesco are charging for flights from Barcelona to London.'

