Passengers traveling on early morning flights with Aer Lingus can now check their baggage in the evening before they fly.

The service means early-bird travellers can bypass busy morning queues and go directly to security screening and straight on to their respective boarding gates.

Only one member of a group or family needs to check in once all tickets, passports and bags are provided together.

However the airline says that all other individual passengers must be present for evening check-in with tickets, passports and baggage.

Check-in is available at Dublin Airport between 4pm and 8pm and is suitable for those flying between 6am and 8am.

Flights with early morning departures include many European destinations such as Malaga, Faro, London and Paris.

In other airline news, Ryanair have again been declared the best performing airline for baggage handling in an annual SITA report. The low-cost airline mishandled 0.38 bags per 1,000 passengers in 2012, compared to 9.4 per 1,000 as the European average.