Call for airlines to come clean over soaring baggage charges

CONSUMER groups and opposition politicians last night called on Ireland’s big airlines to come clean over spiralling baggage handling charges.

Aer Lingus has hiked its baggage fees by 25% to €5 per bag, while Ryanair’s price is up 33% to €6, making the budget airline’s fee among the highest on the market.

Aer Lingus yesterday declined to spell out why the charge had risen 25%, while no-one was available for comment from Ryanair.

Yesterday, the Consumers’ Association of Ireland (CAI) said airlines must come clean over baggage charges and explain the reasons for the hikes.

“The airlines have been caught blatantly abusing the system whereby one would expect transparency for consumers,” said CAI chief executive Dermott Jewell.

He said the airlines could not justify such steep charges as the costs they had to pay for baggage had not risen by as much as 25% or 33%.

“I just don’t think they have a reason for these increases apart from taking extra profit,” he added.

The 25% rise from Aer Lingus was imposed six days ago and came just two months after the fee was first introduced by the former State-owned airline.

In a statement Aer Lingus spokesman Niall Bradley said passengers had not contacted the airline to complain over charges.

“Since the initial introduction of charges on January 17 we have received no negative feedback from our customers,” he said.

Ryanair’s €1.50 increase to €6 for online baggage brings to 71% the total rise in the charge since the fee was first introduced a year ago.

Passengers of the two airlines have to pay €8 and €12 respectively if they turn up at the airport with luggage without having first paid online.

By contrast Aer Arann, which chiefly runs domestic flights and short trips to Britain, imposes no charge for standard baggage either online or at the airport.

Fine Gael transport spokeswoman Olivia Mitchell joined consumer groups in calling on airlines to be transparent over luggage fees.

“This is simply a fare increase by another name and calling it a baggage charge is plainly a dishonest device to avoid having to publicise basic fare increases,” she said.

“Baggage charges made some sense when the motivation was to encourage passengers to move to carry-on baggage only but recent security initiatives make this an unrealistic option,” she said.