More and more airlines are reducing the dimensions of the hand luggage included in the flight price. While initially it was only Ryanair and Wizzair that said goodbye to the IATA standard format, there are now a large number of carriers, including Eurowings, Condor and Tuifly with the cheapest tariffs. The European Parliament now wants to put a stop to this.
Ryanair and Wizzair were the pioneers of additional fees for hand luggage in the IATA standard format a few years ago. Both carriers only allow one very small bag and if you also want to have a trolley with you, for example, you have to pay extra. Little by little, more and more carriers have copied this “system” because you can make a lot of money right at the gate with passengers who are not aware of the rules or who believe that you will get away with it. This income is planned in advance and is usually paid for with gritted teeth, because the alternative is: exclusion from the flight or hand luggage has to stay at home, which is roughly the same as simply leaving the trolley there is pretty much the stupidest idea, because this solves the problem also a police operation.
On October 4, 2023, the European Parliament discussed the issue of hand luggage and passed a motion for a resolution calling on the EU Commission to present concrete political measures against price surcharges for hand luggage. Specifically, this means that legal requirements should be made for uniform dimensions and “appropriate” maximum weight.
What at first glance appears to be very friendly for passengers is actually just a motion for a resolution. Given the complicated mechanisms involved, this has no binding legal effect at all, other than that the Commission has to deal with the issue. Whether anything will come out of it is not at all certain. Time and time again, motions for resolutions simply come to nothing.
In any case, the European Parliament is calling for the existing EU Air Services Regulation to be revised. This actually stipulates that the final price must be displayed in the first booking step. However, pretty much all providers circumvent this by pointing out that additional charges may apply for optional additional services. Prominent examples of this: seat reservations, checking in luggage and hand luggage.
The motion for a resolution also makes reference to a ECJ ruling against Vueling on September 18, 2014. It was decided that no surcharge may be charged for the carriage of hand luggage “provided that the hand baggage meets reasonable requirements in terms of its weight and dimensions and complies with applicable security regulations”. But what is appropriate? This is exactly what is not defined by law and due to the incomprehensible proliferation of airline regulations, the EU Parliament now wants to create clear and uniform rules for all providers.
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