Hawaiian Air earns $18.2M on baggage fees

CRAIG T. KOJIMA / 2014
Hawaiian Air has been fined for setting a low limit on compensation for late baggage. At left

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Increased baggage and reservation cancellation and change fee collections at Hawaiian Airlines during the first quarter contributed to record fee collections from passengers on U.S. airlines.

Hawaiian Airlines, a subsidiary of Hawaiian Holdings Inc., collected $23.7 million from customers who checked bags or changed or canceled airline trips during the first three months of the year, according to data released Monday by the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

For the first quarter Hawaiian’s baggage fees were $18.2 million, up 5.2 percent from $17.3 million in the year-earlier period. The collections earned the carrier a 10th-place ranking among airlines tracked by BTS.

Hawaiian also levied nearly $5.5 million in cancellation and change fees during the first quarter. The take, which was the ninth highest among the carriers that BTS follows, represented a 12.6 percent increase from the nearly $4.9 million that Hawaiian assessed during the first quarter of 2014.

On the flip side, Island Air experienced first-quarter decreases in baggage and change fees. The carrier took in baggage fees of $874,000, an almost 8.8 percent reduction from the year-earlier period when it collected $958,000.

During the first quarter, Island Air saw cancellation and change fee collections drop by about 28.4 percent to $106,000 from the year-earlier $148,000. The carrier’s 13th-place ranking was last among the airlines that BTS tracked.

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In the first three months of this year, airlines collected a record $1.6 billion in such fees, up 7.4 percent from the same period last year. According to research from the Associated Press, the take was the highest since carriers began levying baggage fees in 2008.

The AP reported that fees climbed, in part, because more passengers flew at the start of the year, filling 3.2 percent more seats than passengers during the same period in 2014. According to the AP, the gains also were reflective of fee increases. While the standard bag fee for the first checked suitcase is still $25, the AP reported price hikes can go up to $200 to check extra or overweight bags.

The AP reported that airlines took in $3.6 billion in bag fees and another $3 billion in reservation-change fees during the past 12 months. Changes ranged from $200 for domestic tickets and went as high as $1,000 for an international itinerary.