Ireland-based low-cost carrier (LCC) Ryanair will trial flight transfers this summer as it moves another step closer to mainstream airline practices.

For years, Ryanair has been a strictly point-to-point carrier, going so far in years past as to actively warn prospective passengers against trying to make connections between two of its flights at major hubs, such as London Stansted.

As part of its move toward legacy airline standards in the area of customer relations, however, the airline has said it will test a transfer service at London Stansted and Barcelona’s El Prat airports this summer.

Stansted is Ryanair’s largest hub outside its Dublin home; it makes up more than 70% of the 20-million passenger throughput at the airport, some 30 miles northeast of the UK capital.

The trial “will allow customers to connect onto Ryanair flights without having to go back through security,” the airline said in a statement. A spokesman told ATW that the duration of the trial was not yet settled “as details are being finalized, but it’s for the summer months.”

The carrier has always fought shy of allowing transfer flights, concerned at the additional risk of ensuring baggage is transferred and the problems that arise if an incoming flight is delayed.

The airline added that, if the trial is successful, it would “consider rolling it out elsewhere across its network.”

Ryanair is also tentatively looking at plans to supply short-haul feeder passengers to other long-haul carriers.