Flying Ryanair with a bag? Baggage drop now closes an hour before takeoff

If you fly with Ryanair and check in a bag, set your alarm a bit earlier. From today, baggage drop desks close one hour before the scheduled departure.

Until now, passengers could turn up at the desk as late as 40 minutes before takeoff. That extra 20 minutes of slack is gone.

Why the change? The airline says it wants to avoid long queues at security checks and passport control. Those queues sometimes made some passengers miss their flights. Preventing that matters most in busy travel periods.

Ryanair stresses that the new rules won't affect the 80 percent of passengers who don't check in luggage. They can still check in online before the flight, go through security at the airport and head straight to their gate.

So the takeaway is simple: with a bag to drop, plan to be at the desk well before the one-hour mark.