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Aer Arann is to begin charging passengers for checking a bag on its European flights, the airline said today.

The company said it will levy the fee on bookings made from next Tuesday on flights to the UK and France. A bag of up to 20kg will incur a fee of €8 or £8 if booked online or through the call centre. Bags booked at the airport will incur a fee of €12 or £12.

Domestic flights will still have a checked baggage allowance of 15kg free of charge.

Aer Arann’s director of corporate affairs Andrew Kelly said the change was made due to customer demand for larger baggage allowances on international flights.

“Prior to this change in policy a passenger with a 20kg bag would have been liable for excess baggage charges of €40 and actually received no benefit from our free baggage allowance,” he said.