Ryanair passenger beats fees with ingenious homemade coat

Ryanair’s decision to scrap a second free cabin bag for all passengers has led one traveller to fashion a homemade suitcase coat to beat the extra charges.

Ahead of a flight with the Irish airline to Belfast, Lee Cimino decided not to pay to take a second bag on-board, and instead devised a luggage jacket into which he could pack all the belongings he needed for a birthday weekend.

Ryanair introduced its new policy last week. Passengers who do not pay for priority boarding (£6 per person each way at the time of booking, or £8 at online check-in) are now able to take only one small bag into the cabin. Travellers are also able to pay £8 to check a 10kg into the hold.

Mr Cimino, 30, filmed his exploits, first claiming his love for Ryanair before adding: “But these latest changes, they’re too much. I was properly annoyed but then I had an idea.”

The creative customer from Staffordshire had a local tailor customise his overcoat, sewing in old pants into the lining to create pockets, or “storage allowance”, including compartments for shoes, which he donned and headed for the airport. For the privilege, he paid around £25.

“This is never going to work,” he said. “[It] sticks out a mile.”

But it did.

The video shows Mr Cimino nervously approaching security, and then the Ryanair gate, both of which he was able to pass without difficulty.

Ryanair has not yet responded after being asked whether it is in their policy to allow guests with homemade luggage coats to board without additional charge.

The airline said this week that its new policy had “already improved punctuality” and had delivered savings to customers as they switch from a 20kg checked bag (£25) to a 10kg bag (£8). It said that boarding times were improved, progress through airport security had hastened, and punctuality had increased 11 percentage points in a week – up to 88 per cent.

Mr Cimino is not the first person to use innovative clothing to beat baggage costs.

Earlier this year a man was arrested at Keflavik Airport, Iceland, after being refused onto a British Airways flight because he was wearing eight pairs of trousers and 10 shirts.

Recent years have seen a number of manufacturers engineer multifunctional travel jackets, packed with pockets, including one from Scottevest with 18 hidden compartments.

Telegraph Fashion’s Bibby Sowray described the jacket as “pretty inoffensive and classic in its shape and styling”.

In 2017, another company, Juice Promotions, launched a crowd-funding campaign for its Airport Jacket that had 14 deep pockets that could carry, among other items, a laptop, a camera and two pairs of shoes.

In 2011, the Rufus Roo - a vest jacket made from lightweight nylon designed simply to carry things - was created by Andrew Gaule, a traveller and full-time business consultant frustrated by rising baggage fees.

"I kept seeing people having money extracted from them, and noticing the frustration and embarrassment. But no-one weighs your clothes, so I thought of designing a jacket” he said.

“We made them with big armholes, so you can slip them over the top of any coat you’re wearing, however bulky.”