Ryanair is paying staff bonuses to catch out passengers who try to sneak oversized cabin bags onto flights – and they can make up to €80 a month just from enforcing the strict rules.

A leaked payslip shows how one former employee earned a 'gate bag bonus' for flagging up bags that broke the airline's famously tight size restrictions.

The ex-worker claimed they pocketed around €1.50 (£1.30) for every oversized bag they reported, according to the Sunday Times, although they said the monthly bonus was capped.

Ryanair, which made a staggering €13 billion in revenue last year, confirmed on Saturday that staff are financially rewarded for flagging bags that breach the rules – with passengers charged up to €75 for each oversized item caught at the gate.

But despite confirming the scheme, the airline refused to say exactly how much staff are paid as part of this 'gate bag bonus'.

A Ryanair spokesperson said: 'We do pay commission to our agents who identify and charge for oversized bags, but these fees are paid by less than 0.1 per cent of passengers who don't comply with our agreed bags rules.

'Our message to those 0.1 per cent of passengers is simple: please comply with our generous bag rules or you will be charged at check-in or at the gate.

Ryanair is paying staff bonuses to catch out passengers who try to sneak oversized cabin bags onto flights

A leaked payslip shows how one former employee earned a 'gate bag bonus' for flagging up bags that broke the airline's famously tight size restrictions (file photo)

'For the 99.9 per cent of our passengers who comply with our rules we say thank you and keep flying as you have nothing to worry about.'

Currently, Ryanair allows just one small bag measuring 40 x 20 x 25cm free of charge, as long as it fits under the seat. A second, larger cabin bag (up to 10kg) comes with a fee starting at €6.

But change is on the horizon. The airline said earlier this month that it will increase the size of free hand luggage to 40 x 30 x 20cm – in line with upcoming EU rules banning airlines from charging for small carry-ons. However, those regulations haven't yet come into effect.

The revelation of Ryanair's bonus scheme comes just months after the airline's chief marketing officer Dara Brady claimed no such commissions were being paid.

Speaking in April to Ireland's Virgin Media News, he insisted: 'We don't pay our staff commission for bags. [The policy] is about protecting the amount of bags we can bring on board.

'We can only take a limited amount of bags on board, so our staff have to be very conscious of the bag sizes that people are taking. I reiterate that there's been no change in the Ryanair bag policy and if people travel with the right size bags, well you'll have a great flight with Ryanair.'

Currently, Ryanair allows just one small bag measuring 40 x 20 x 25cm free of charge, as long as it fits under the seat (file photo)

But Ryanair isn't the only airline profiting from passengers' luggage slip-ups.

An internal email leaked earlier this year revealed that easyJet was also running a bonus scheme for staff who enforce its own baggage rules.

The message, sent to employees at Swissport, which manages gates for easyJet at several UK airports, confirmed agents would earn £1.20 per oversized bag caught at the gate – £1 after tax.

The 'easyJet gate bag revenue incentive' is reportedly still running at airports including Belfast, Birmingham, Glasgow, Jersey, Liverpool, and Newcastle.

Swissport's Dean Martin, a station manager at Glasgow Airport, wrote that the payments were designed to 'reward agents doing the right thing'.

And it doesn't stop there. At airports like Gatwick, Bristol, and Manchester, DHL Supply Chain workers are also believed to be getting a 'nominal amount' per oversized bag detected.