Passengers keep reaching into their pockets to pay checked-bag fees, and next week they’ll need to dig a little deeper.
Bag fees aren’t going up then, but the federal security screening fee that is tacked onto each ticket will more than double starting July 1 to $5.60 for each leg of a flight from $2.50 per segment.
"It’s just wasteful government bureaucracy. There’s no other way to put it," said Colorado-based airline consultant Mike Boyd about the Transportation Security Administration fee that is increasing as part of a December budget deal.
So a one-way ticket for Hawaiian Airlines’ lowest fare from Honolulu to Lihue, for example, will increase to $84.30 from $81.20. That ticket includes $5.21 in federal tax, a segment tax of $4 and the new $5.60 TSA fee that combined will add $14.81 to the base fare of $69.49.
The TSA fee is applied to each segment, regardless of distance, so the $5.60 becomes $11.20 for a direct round trip. Similarily a one-stop, one-way trip, such as New York-Honolulu-Kona, would have two segment fees and also cost $11.20.
And so it goes for the airline passenger as total fares keep rising.
Airlines, too, are feeling the pinch. With fuel prices still high, carriers depend on baggage fee revenue to turn a profit or reduce a loss.
During the most recent quarter, Hawaiian brought in $17.3 million in baggage fees, which represented a 4.5 percent increase from $16.6 million in the year-earlier period. It was the most baggage fee revenue for Hawaiian ever in a first quarter. The baggage fees were not enough to offset a $5.1 million net loss that Hawaiian incurred in the first quarter.
"We did carry more passengers in the first quarter compared to last year, and that contributed to the increase in fees," Hawaiian spokeswoman Ann Botticelli said.
Hawaiian carried 2.41 million passengers during the January-March quarter, up just 6,685 passengers, or 0.3 percent, from the year-earlier period.
The state’s largest carrier also took in $4.9 million from reservation cancellation and change fees, up a similar 4.5 percent from $4.7 million from the year-earlier period.
Island Air took in $958,000 in bag fees in the first quarter, up 50.9 percent from $635,000 in the year-ago quarter. The airline also brought in $148,000 in reservation cancellation and change fees, up 15.6 percent from $128,000 in the first quarter of 2013.
Hawaiian charges $25 for the first checked bag and $35 for the second checked bag for flights between Hawaii and North America. It doesn’t charge for the first two checked bags on international flights.
For interisland flights, Hawaiian increased its fees in March for non-HawaiianMiles members to $25 from $17 on a first checked bag and more than double to $35, from $17, on a second checked bag.
Island Air, which flies to Oahu, Kauai, Maui and Lanai, charges $15 for a first checked bag and $25 for a second checked bag.
Boyd, the airline consultant, said at some point passengers might revolt over rising baggage fees, but he doesn’t believe the industry is at that point yet.
"They can charge anything they want, and they will," Boyd said. "I felt when American Airlines put a $15 fee on checked bags that customers would run for cover. I thought American Airlines had absolutely committed suicide.
"But guess what? People paid it. Why leave money on the table? But there’s a limit what you can charge before you have customer outcry."
Boyd defends the industry practice of charging baggage fees because of the costs airlines incur for equipment and baggage handlers.
"Airlines can make a real clear point that it costs money to handle luggage, so if they charge for it, it makes sense," Boyd said. "The question is, How much can they charge for it?"
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