Last week, the budget carrier said that it was to start charging passengers £2 to check in at the airport from September 20th.
The airline said that the move would encourage people to use its online check-in facilities - which would remain free to use.
However, Lonely Planet's travel editor, Tom Hall, criticised the move on BBC One's Breakfast programme.
He said: "It is the latest in a long line of charges from Ryanair, either hidden or transparent.
"Although Ryanair say they are not out to make money on this, I personally, having done a couple of calculations, think they probably will make money.
"What you have is a situation where an airline is advertising itself as being a low-fares airline but actually, when you analyse the figures, it is closer in many cases [to the] price of flying with an airline that has much more in the way of goods and services."
At the time of the announcement, Ryanair's Peter Sherrard said: "Ryanair's web check-in and priority boarding service has proven very popular among passengers by freeing them from check-in queues and departure gate queues."
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(Tony Hill and Helen Gillilan)
