Recently, U.S. lawmakers began complaining about baggage check fees, and since then there has been a lot of talk about airline fees in general. It’s a complicated question to answer because of the sheer amount of fees charged by airlines in general. When you buy a plane ticket, you are paying everyone from the aircraft dispatchers and TSA, all the way to the Pilots and CEOs of the airline.
At the moment, fuel costs are lower than they have been in many years and the influx of new airlines has generated healthy competition. Travel fees that were created to offset high fuel costs are now pure profit. Take a careful look at any ticket receipt and you’ll notice what seems like a laundry list of added fees and charges with strange acronyms.
As far as fees we really need, of course the most important would be the fees that pay the salaries of the people in charge of giving us a safe flight. Think of the pilots, cabin crew, aircraft dispatchers, flight controllers, and even the baggage handlers. Those jobs are integral to your flight. But, how about a charge to allow you to sit together with the person you are flying with or an early boarding fee? Are these necessary fees that airlines use in ways we may not understand?
In a recent article written by Bill McGee of USA Today, the journalist catalogued his bus trip and all of the fees that he was charged in his typical ticket price. It caused a little controversy, so in pure journalistic fashion, McGee followed up the article with a post detailing travel fees in general to shed more light on the industry. McGee himself is a licensed aircraft dispatcher and says of the baggage check fee “[…] from an airline perspective the real costs associated with baggage are in handling, not fuel burn”.
The jury is still out on this issue while lawmakers and airlines discuss further.
