This chart shows the increase in airline baggage fees during the the last couple of quarters. As you can see, American Airlines and Delta Airlines grew from around 40 million Dollars in Q2 2008 to 118 million Dollars in Q2 of this year. You did read that correctly – they each made 118 million Dollars in just one quarter, just off baggage fees.
The total money generated from baggage fees in 2009 between these 10 carriers is 1.23 billion Dollars. And those numbers are only for the first two quarters. With the current new generation of baggage fees, we are on track to reach about 3 billion Dollars for the entire year.
Baggage fees are here to stay, and when you see that airlines can make 118 million in just a couple of months, you’ll understand why.