How The Luggage Sizes and Costs Have Changed at the Low-Cost Airlines

Anyone who flew with a low-cost airline ten years ago and still flies today knows: the rules have changed radically. What used to be free is now paid for, what used to be allowed "by eye" is now measured to the millimeter at the gate, and the price of checked baggage can sometimes exceed the cost of the ticket itself. In this article we review how baggage policy has evolved at Ryanair, Wizz Air, EasyJet, FlyOne, HiSky, and other low-cost carriers flying to and from Romania — and what this means in practice for travelers in 2026.

Why everything changed

The low-cost model was built on a simple principle: the ticket price covers only your transport (the flight). Everything else — a larger cabin bag, checked baggage, priority boarding, seat selection — gradually became a separate, paid service. This strategy allowed airlines to display spectacularly low base fares, while real revenue comes from the sum of these extra options. The result: the bag you used to carry for free a few years ago might no longer fit within current limits, and a "standard" checked bag today often costs as much as a cheap round-trip ticket.

Ryanair: the free bag got bigger, but everything else costs more than ever

Ryanair is the classic example. At one point the company reduced the free baggage allowance to just a small bag under the seat, forcing passengers to pay for everything else. In 2025, Ryanair slightly enlarged its free personal item, from 40×25×20 cm to the current 40×30×20 cm, partially aligning with European discussions on standardizing carry-on baggage.

The current structure looks like this:

Free personal item (under the seat in front): 40×30×20 cm, included in any fare.
Cabin bag + priority boarding (trolley in the overhead bin): up to 55×40×20 cm, 10 kg — paid separately, roughly 6–36 € if added at booking, but can reach 20–60 € if added later. Priority seats are limited to about 95 passengers per flight, so they can sell out.
10 kg checked bag: from about 9.49 € online.
20 kg checked bag: between about 19–60 € per bag, per flight, depending on route and season.
Excess weight: about 9–13 € per kilogram over the purchased limit.

The most painful difference for your wallet appears when the bag doesn't meet the size requirements at the boarding gate: the "gate bag" fee can reach 70 € — several times more than if you had purchased the same option online, in advance.

Wizz Air: a "weight tier" system, dynamic pricing

Wizz Air, the most commonly used low-cost airline on routes from Romania, recently made a similar change: in November 2025 it reduced the free personal item from 45×35×20 cm to the current 40×30×20 cm, aligning it with the standard now also used by Ryanair.

Current policy:

Free personal item: 40×30×20 cm, up to 10 kg, included in any ticket.
WIZZ Priority trolley (overhead compartment): 55×40×23 cm, 10 kg — requires purchasing the Priority service, with dynamic prices between about 10 and 60 €, depending on route and season.
Checked baggage: Wizz Air sells fixed weight "tiers" — 10 kg, 20 kg, 26 kg, or 32 kg — rather than a simple "included bag." A 20 kg bag costs between about 15 and 55 €, and a 32 kg bag can exceed 100 € during peak season.
Excess weight: 13 € per kilogram.

A particular quirk of Wizz Air is that it's not possible to "pool" baggage weight between two traveling companions — each bag must individually meet the purchased limit, even if the total sum would meet a different threshold.

EasyJet: the free bag remains the most generous, but the trolley is charged separately

Unlike Ryanair and Wizz Air, easyJet has kept a somewhat more generous free bag: 45×36×20 cm, with no official weight limit (though the passenger must be able to lift it themselves). However, as with the other airlines, any additional bag costs extra:

Large cabin bag (trolley, overhead compartment): 56×45×25 cm, up to 15 kg — from about 6 € online, but frequently between 15 and 35 € on popular routes such as London–Amsterdam.
Checked baggage: options of 15, 23, 26, or 32 kg, from about 7 € for the smallest, if added early online.
Excess weight: about 12 € per kilogram.

The UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) sanctioned EasyJet in 2023 for advertising cabin baggage "from £5.99" as a typical price, when in fact this was only available on a limited number of routes — a concrete example of how much the advertised price can differ from what most passengers actually end up paying.

FlyOne: the smallest free bag, but also the highest gate fees

FlyOne is often the first choice on European routes, and its baggage policy deserves special attention — especially because the penalties for non-compliance are among the harshest in the region.

Current FlyOne structure:

Free personal item: 40×30×20 cm, included in any fare, but with a lower weight limit than competitors — typically 7–8 kg, depending on the fare chosen (Standard/Light).
Enlarged cabin bag (FlyOne Priority): 50×40×25 cm, up to 10 kg — added at ticket purchase, from about 20 €. Automatically included in the "Loyal" and "Advantage" fares.
Checked baggage: not included in the basic Standard fare. Purchased separately, in tiers of 10 kg, 20 kg, or 30 kg. The "Loyal" fare includes one 20 kg checked bag, while "Advantage" includes two bags (10 kg + 20 kg).
Excess baggage at check-in: between about 45 and 136 € for up to 10 kg of excess, and between 80 and 240 € for up to 20 kg of excess.
Gate fee (non-compliant, undeclared baggage): between 105 and 316 € per flight — the highest fee of this kind among the airlines covered in this article.

The key difference compared to Ryanair, Wizz Air, or EasyJet is the size of the penalty: at FlyOne, an improperly declared bag at the gate can, in the worst case, cost more than an entire round-trip ticket.

Zbor24's recommendation is to always check the exact weight of your personal item before heading to the airport — FlyOne's 7 kg limit is among the strictest in the low-cost segment.

HiSky: the Moldovan-Romanian airline, with tiered fares and high fees for extra baggage

HiSky is a low-cost airline based in Chișinău and Cluj-Napoca, particularly relevant for passengers from Romania and the Republic of Moldova, especially on routes to France, Germany, the United Kingdom, or Ireland.

HiSky's structure differs from the rest of the market in that the free carry-on allowance varies depending on the fare chosen, rather than being a fixed standard:

Small carry-on bag (Basic fare): 40×30×20 cm, up to 8 kg — included free.
Standard carry-on bag (higher fares): up to 10 kg, with a 115 cm limit (length + width + depth combined), or a 55×40×20 cm trolley.
Checked baggage: varies by fare — from 8 kg (Basic) to 20 kg (Premium/Premium Plus), with maximum dimensions of 115 cm (lower fares) or 158 cm (higher fares).
Extra/second bag: prices start at about 40 € for the first added bag and can exceed 100–120 € for a third bag or for oversized bags (over 158 or 203 cm).

The practical takeaway for Zbor24 passengers: with HiSky, choosing the right fare from the start matters more than with Ryanair or Wizz Air, because the included baggage isn't uniform — a Basic fare chosen in haste may later require purchasing extra baggage at a price much higher than the difference between fares.

Other low-cost airlines flying to and from Romania

Besides the four airlines detailed above, several routes from Romania are operated by other low-cost or hybrid carriers, with baggage policies somewhat more generous than Ryanair or Wizz Air:

Eurowings (Germany, Lufthansa Group's low-cost subsidiary, routes from Cluj-Napoca/Bucharest to Germany): free bag 40×30×25 cm on any fare; the 55×40×23 cm (8 kg) trolley costs extra on the BASIC fare (from ~18 €), but is included on the SMART fare.
Vueling (Spain, IAG group, routes to Barcelona and other Spanish cities): free bag 40×30×20 cm on any fare; the 55×40×20 cm (10 kg) trolley is included only on the Optima, Family, or TimeFlex fares — on the Basic fare it's charged separately.

Both airlines share a common pattern with Ryanair and Wizz Air: the small under-seat bag is always free, but the overhead trolley almost always costs extra on the cheapest fare.

What's still changing: pressure from the European Union

The European Parliament adopted its position in January 2026 for a regulation that would require all airlines to include, free of charge, at least one small cabin bag in any fare. The law is not yet finalized — it still needs approval from the European Council — but public pressure has already led Ryanair and Wizz Air to standardize their free bag at 40×30×20 cm. EasyJet, which already offered a larger free bag, has publicly opposed the regulation, warning that it could lead to higher base fares to compensate.

How to avoid hidden costs — Zbor24's recommendations

Measure the bag when it's full, not empty. A soft bag can expand by a few centimeters once packed and may fail the gate sizer even if it "looked fine" at home.
Buy any extra baggage in advance, online. The price difference between booking and paying the fee at the gate can be three or four times higher.
Check the exact policy before every flight. Rules change frequently — as we've seen, both Ryanair and Wizz Air modified their free dimensions within just the last year.
Compare the total cost, not just the ticket price. A "cheap" ticket with added checked baggage can end up more expensive than a ticket on a traditional airline with baggage included.
Consider a bag/suitcase compatible with each airline's limits if you fly frequently with different operators — dimensions differ between Ryanair, Wizz Air, and easyJet.

At Zbor24, we check for you, with every flight search, what's actually included in the fare and what you'll need to pay extra for, so that the price you see is as close as possible to the price you end up paying.

Note: the prices and dimensions mentioned are valid at the time this article was published and may vary depending on route, season, and each airline's policy. We recommend checking information directly on the official carrier's website before traveling.

Low-Cost Airline Baggage Sizes and Costs