The Ryanair low fares airline is striving to move towards a low baggage operation.The Irish carrier is to charge passengers for checking in their baggage from March 16 to cut airport handling costs.
People with luggage will have to pay a fee of £2.50 per case - although bags carried by hand will continue to be free.
Ryanair will increase luggage limits to 30 kilos from 25 kilos - including the 10 kilo hand luggage allowance.
Bags booked in online will cost £2.50, while unbooked bags will cost £5 each.
Those flying only with hand luggage will be able to check in online and bypass the check-in queues.
Ryanair's justification is that airport and handling costs will be cut by more than 10%, leading to savings of around £20.6m.
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That is equivalent to 10% of its predicted net profits for the current financial year.
As a result, says the airline, it will reduce average ticket prices by 9%.
Michael O'Leary, Ryanair's Chief Executive said: "We have no doubt that this pioneering development for checked in bags is the way forward, as it will encourage and incentivise more passengers on short-haul journeys to travel with hand luggage only.
"Ryanair's higher carry-on limit of 10kgs and our new increased checked in allowance of 20kgs will largely eliminate excess baggage charges," he added.
"Our existing check-in and baggage handling personnel will now be able to accommodate significantly greater traffic numbers as we aim to double the size of the airline over the coming five years."