The new Hands Free facility will allow passengers to deposit their hand luggage at the Bag Drop, where it is treated as a hold bag until it reaches the arrival airport.

Passengers choosing Hands Free will be given small plastic bags for their essential items and can still take duty free purchases on board. The facility is offered to group bookings for a flat £10 fee.

Hands Free was trialled in France earlier this year, when more than 9,000 passengers chose the option in four weeks. Budget airlines are often faced with the problem of too many passengers with cabin bags and have to ask for volunteers to put bags in the hold or select them for mandatory placement. EastJet has now decided to turn this problem into a source of ancillary revenue.

An easyJet spokesperson admitted that Hands Free was one way of solving the problem of too many bags on board. “Yes it is, but also, for the passenger, it means they don’t have to carry the bag through the airport, through security and to departures,” she said.

She added that the service was now available at all easyJet bases except Gatwick, where IT issues still have to be resolved. “That’s in progress,” she said.

Andrew Middleton, easyJet ancillary revenue director, added: “We’ve seen a fantastic response from customers upgrading to the Hands Free experience and we’re confident once you go Hands Free you’ll never want to drag cabin baggage through the airport again.”