ATLANTA — When airlines started charging some passengers $15 or more earlier this year to check their bags, they blamed soaring fuel costs. Since then, oil has plummeted. Yet the industry hasn’t stowed away the bag fees.
Many of us are still paying to fly with a suitcase that doesn’t squeeze into the overhead bin or under the seat.
The reason is simple: Airlines are still losing money, though now largely because of the recession instead of oil.
And don’t expect the fee to disappear even when the economy rebounds. Airlines are finding the fees to be a reliable source of revenue and say that such charges allow passengers to choose only the services they want.
Passengers, meanwhile, are paying up and grumbling. Many are being socked, on average, $15 for the first bag and $25 for the second.
“I think it’s unfair, and I think it’s highway robbery,” said Benjamin Johnson, a 38-year-old government employee, as he headed from Atlanta to Orlando, Fla.
For the airlines, the bag fees, on top of charges for other once-free amenities, add up to much-needed revenue. The industry is expected to lose $4 billion for 2008, excluding one-time items, despite the plunge in the price of a barrel of oil from $147 in July to less than $40 this week, said Calyon Securities airline analyst Ray Neidl.
Airlines also have been weighed down by bad bets they made on the price of fuel when it was skyrocketing. After locking in at prices that looked reasonable earlier this year, some are paying substantially more than market price for a portion of their fuel.
Airlines do not break out the revenue brought in by baggage fees.
“While fuel prices have fallen, the economy has created a new uncertainty for us, and the industry’s going to lose billions of dollars this year,” said Doug Parker, chief of US Airways Group Inc.
