With the summer holidays finally upon us and Brits excited to escape the UK for some well-deserved sun and sea, unfortunately, there are a multitude of little-known airport rules that could ruin the fun before it even starts. One rule, concerning Ryanair luggage, risks landing passengers in trouble at the airport if they do not come prepared.

It is often travellers' worst nightmare - being taken aside by airport workers to check their hand luggage dimensions with bag sizers right before boarding. With budget airline Ryanair, passengers are permitted to bring a "personal bag" for free, though it must fit its strict size requirements. Following a recent change in line with EU law, these dimensions have been increased to 40x30x20cm. If their bag is too big, passengers will be charged a fee as high as £70. But this is where they may get caught out with a rule that many have no idea about.

Ryanair operates a cashless policy at its boarding gates, which could land some travellers in trouble. This means that if a passenger is prepared to pay the fee, unless they have a card on them, they may not be able to board with their bag. 

A Ryanair spokesperson told The Daily Mail: "Our bag policy is simple; if it fits in our bag sizer (which is bigger than our agreed dimensions) it gets on free of charge.

"If it doesn’t fit in our bag sizer, you pay a gate bag fee. As our boarding gates are cashless, gate bag fees cannot be paid in cash. 

"These fees are paid by less than 0.1% of passengers who don't comply with our agreed bags rules. For the 99.9% of our passengers who comply with our rules we say thank you and keep flying as you have nothing to worry about."

Therefore, if you're flying with Ryanair this summer, it may be worth carrying a card to ensure a good start to your holiday.

This alert comes as it was revealed that a new four-hour rule was implemented ahead of the summer holidays, a move that will impact Ryanair, easyJet, TUI, and Jet2 customers. Following a decision by the EU, the timeframe for claiming compensation for a delayed flight has now been increased. 

After 12 years of discussions, it has been agreed that compensation claims for short-haul flights can only be made after a delay of four hours or more. This figure was previously three hours. Meanwhile, long-haul travellers will need to be delayed by six or more hours before making a redressal. The cause of the delay also impacts the amount of compensation people receive.

A4E, which represents leading airlines across Europe, said: "Europe has been waiting for transparent and workable passenger rights for 12 years and member states have fallen at the final hurdle to deliver [...] member states have diluted the European Commission’s original proposal and introduced even more complexity."

Elsewhere, a major change to air travel in Europe is on the horizon, as the EU Commission has confirmed plans to phase out a long-standing, and very unpopular, hand luggage rule. It has confirmed plans to remove the 100ml limit on liquids in hand luggage and is likely to begin rolling out the changes at selected airports in the very near future.