Consumers paid more than $9.2 billion in fees to U.S. airlines in 2010 for checked baggage and other services, but these fees were hidden from most travellers when they purchased their airline tickets, because the airlines refuse to share their fee information with travel agents and other distributors, according to a new study by the Consumer Travel Alliance (CTA).

Published: 11 Mar 2011

Consumers paid more than $9.2 billion in fees to U.S. airlines in 2010 for checked baggage and other services, but these fees were hidden from most travellers when they purchased their airline tickets, because the airlines refuse to share their fee information with travel agents and other distributors, according to a new study by the Consumer Travel Alliance (CTA).

On average, passengers paid a total of $36.80 in fees for every round trip ticket – nearly $150 for a family of four, the study found.

This study, the first to look at how the hidden fees imposed by major U..S. airlines have impacted the cost of air travel in 2010, was based on fourth-quarter 2010 earnings releases from the nation’s eight largest airlines as well as data from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

“Buying a plane ticket has become an Alice-in-Wonderland experience where a consumer has to agree to purchase the ticket before being told how much the trip will actually cost,” said Andrew Weinstein, executive director of Open Allies for Airfare Transparency. “Airlines should be able to charge whatever they want for their services, but they should have to share all of those prices with travelers in advance, so consumers can make informed buying decisions. A free market requires access to information to function efficiently, and the air travel marketplace is broken because airlines are not currently sharing any information on billions of dollars in hidden fees.”

Information on extra (or ancillary) fees, which are not visible to the more than half of consumers who use third parties to book their travel, was the focus of an analysis of major U.S. airlines’ year-end financial reports by CTA, in coordination with Open Allies for Airfare Transparency, a coalition representing hundreds of companies in the managed travel community.