Ryanair will hit passengers this summer season by raising its baggage charges by one-third. The recent move of the budget carrier means that checked-in baggage charges will surge 470 per cent in just four years time – from €3.25 per luggage checked-in online in March 2006 to €20 starting this July.

Ryanair said that the new charges are intended to encourage all of its guests to travel light this summer season. The company’s spokesman Stephen McNamara said that the checked-in bag fee will go back to its current price of €15 by September. He added that more than 70 per cent of Ryanair passengers will not be affected by the change because they travel with no checked-in luggage.

Meanwhile according to Ryanair’s in-flight magazine, the budget carrier is pushing ahead with its plan to charge £1 for passengers using the plane’s toilets. The airline is reported to be working with Boeing to remodel its cabins and to install coin-operated toilets in all of its 168 planes.

McNamara is hoping that the planned policy would change passengers’ behaviour, and would force them to use toilets before or after their flight. The scheme will also enable Ryanair to remove two of its plane toilets and make way for six extra seats on board. He however assured that toilet fees would not implemented this summer.