Ryanair is to begin charging customers a €3 airport check-in charge from next month.
Passengers who use the check-in desk will be subject to the fee which the airline
says reflects the cost of airport facilities. The new charges come into force on September 20th.
The move will hit passengers having to check-in luggage the hardest as the airline also charges a fee of €12 per item of checked-baggage.
Ryanair says the new fee is designed to encourage passengers to travel without excess baggage and use the company's web check-in and priority boarding service.
In the short-term the move is likely to contribute to a significant revenue boost for the airline of between €100 to €150 million per annum for the Ryanair, based on its estimate of carrying around 50 million passengers a year.
Last month the company said its other ancillary revenues - including car hire, hotel bookings, travel insurance, onboard sales and excess baggage revenues - had risen by 53 per cent to €117.1 million and the latest change will boost these, at least in the short-term.
However, revenue from paid check-in may fall if significant numbers of passengers transfer to online booking. Ryanair's Peter Sherrard said declined to give the percentage of passengers currently using web check-in but said it was "quite small. Obviously we would like to see that grow."
"These new measures will encourage more and more passengers to travel without checked in baggage and use Ryanair's free web check-in and priority boarding service."
The airline currently charges a fee of €3 per flight for the service but this will be removed once the desk service charge is introduced.
At present passengers without cabin luggage can avail of Ryanair's priority boarding service and avoid having to check-in at a desk.
At midday today Ryanair shares were down nine cent to €5.08.