Airline easyJet has defended its hand luggage policy after a passenger at Belfast International Airport was charged £48 for a backpack, despite having already travelled with it with the same airline earlier in the week.
Posting a picture of the bag on X, Belfast woman Clíona McCarney said: “Charged £48 to fly with this backpack by easyJet despite flying with it on same airline on Thursday.
“Apparently you can’t push your bag to get it in bag sizer, it has to drop in by magic.”
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An easyJet spokesperson commented: “Our ground crew must ensure that customers’ cabin bags are within the maximum dimensions to safely and securely fit where they need to be stowed in the cabin and so customers will sometimes be asked to check this using our baggage size gauges in the airport.
“We clearly inform customers of maximum cabin bag dimensions when booking, via email before they travel and it is also clearly displayed on boarding passes.”
Belfast International Airport has also been contacted for a response.
Earlier this month, the consumer group Which? ranked the airport as the third worst in the UK, behind Manchester Airport’s Terminals 1 and 3.
Finishing with a Which? customer score of 44%, compared to Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport’s top customer score of 81% and Belfast City Airport’s result of 63%.
At the time, a Belfast International Airport spokesperson queried the sample size used in the Which? ratings, but said they took customer feedback seriously.
They added that their latest survey carried out over the summer peal recorded that 97% of passengers had rated their experience as excellent, very good or good.
