Top airline corporations made billions of dollars last year on those pesky baggage fees travelers despise a lot.
The top 20 global airlines raked in $33.3 billion in revenue from a mix of fees for carry-on bags, price hikes for checked luggage and fines for chubby suitcases, a latest report found.
The dollar figure rose 15% from $29 billion in 2022 and accounts for roughly 4.1% of worldwide airline revenue in 2023, based on the study(*20*) by airline consulting firm IdeaWorksCompany and automobile rental service CarTrawler.
The revenue stream comes directly from airline customers through three primary means — fees for checked baggage in the aircraft hold, larger carry-on bags and chubby or extra large bags, the evaluation states.
Long gone are the days when a plane ticket included a free checked bag or perhaps a free carry-on in some cases. Some low-end tickets now only include a free personal item — corresponding to a handbag or small backpack.
Most airlines have begun charging for checked and/or carry-on items for “basic economy” ticketholders which pay the least expensive rate available.
The exception is in Asia where airlines like Air China, Korean Air and Qantas still include baggage with a ticket purchase, irrespective of the fare or distance.
Airline corporations first rolled out baggage fees as “an economic necessity” during the oil shock of 2007 and 2008 which saw a dramatic uptick in fuel prices, based on the study.
Inside months, major US corporations switched from including two checked bags with every ticket to charging for the first checked bag.
From there, the fee amounts and their prevalence have steeply increased over the years.
Just this month, JetBlue — which was not included in the evaluation — sparked outrage after quietly mountaineering its prices for checked bags, with teed-off passengers calling the sneaky move a greedy money grab.
The Recent York-based airline is now charging travelers $45 for his or her first standard-size bag checked inside 24 hours of departure — and $60 for a second bag. If checked greater than a day trip, the cost for every is $10 cheaper.
As a substitute of constructing a big public announcement of the change, the airline quietly updated the “Bag Info” section on its website where superb print says that the price increase was implemented on Feb. 1.
That only angered customers more who took their frustrations to social media.
“Inflation and greed rising,” one named Yau wrote on X.
The study included 4 American airline corporations amongst the mixture of top global airlines that didn’t include any budget carriers.
The baggage fees are only a part of the $118 billion in so-called “junk fees,” or ancillary fees, the airline corporations made in 2023.
Seat selection fees, which have turn into increasingly more frequent over the last few years, also represents a big portion of the revenue stream.
The Biden administration has vowed to crack down on the “junk fees” in an effort to supply travelers with more transparent prices after they go to book flights.
“The Department of Transportation is taking motion on airline junk fees that inflate prices for American families,” a DOT spokesperson told The Post in November.
“For instance, we’re working to ban family seating junk fees because parents shouldn’t should pay more just to take a seat with their kids after they fly.”
In 2022, US travelers forked over $6.8 billion in baggage fees, based on the Department of Transportation.
Just two years earlier, American taxpayers’ money was used to supply a $54 billion lifeline to major US airlines as they suffered an enormous blowout from COVID-19 travel bans and restrictions.