Budget airline woos customers after Michael O'Leary concedes it needs to stop 'unnecessarily pissing people off'

Ryanair has halved its excess baggage fee to €10 (£8.37) a kilo in its latest attempt to appease customers frustrated and angry with its additional charges and reputation for abrasive service.

The budget airline said it was giving customers an "early Christmas present", following the admission from Ryanair's outspoken chief executive, Michael O'Leary, that the company needed to change its culture after shareholders said the airline's "macho" image was harming business.

O'Leary conceded the airline should take a softer approach and stop "unnecessarily pissing people off".

Ryanair said it had also tried to improve its service by launching a new website and introducing a 24-hour grace period for minor booking errors, and it will be reducing airport bag fees from 3 January and introducing allocated seating on all flights from 1 February.

The company has also brought in "quiet flights" between 9pm and 8am, with no public announcements made on flights other than required safety notices.

Robin Kiely, Ryanair's head of communications, said: "Christmas is traditionally a time when people travel with lots of baggage. As an early Christmas present to our customers, Ryanair is cutting excess baggage fees by 50%.

"We want to say a very sincere thank you to our 81 million passengers and wish them all a very happy Christmas."