Mar
2011
Homeland Security Wants a Fee For Carry-On Luggage
If Homeland Security gets their way, there will be no way to take luggage on a plane with you that somehow don’t pay extra for.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano went before Congress this week according to USA Today and told the Congressman that carry-on luggage is costing taxpayers $260 million annually. Apparently the rise in carry-on luggage due to growing checked baggage fees is increasing the work load at security gates, and is in turn causing the expenses of running the nationally mandated security system to increase.
Sen. Mary Landrieu (LA – D) asked:
Checked-bag fees are increasing, it looks like, the cost to TSA because people don’t want to pay the fees so they are not checking bags and putting more on the planes. My question is, do the taxpayers have to pick up this fee? Or should we be looking at the airlines for some of the profits that they make from these fees to offset the cost to the taxpayer?
Ms. Napolitano suggested that a $5 fee be assessed to each one-way ticket, which would in turn bring in about $600 million a year to the security agency.
Excuse me, I may not be a math expert, but if the carry-on luggage is costing the department $260 million a year, why do they need to bring in $600 million in fees? Additionally, why shouldn’t the airlines, which are bringing in billions a year, team up to pay what would be a measly bill when split up amongst them?
It is becoming increasingly less attractive to bring any luggage with you on a plane, and as much as I’m sure the airlines would love if we brought none on board, we, as humans, have this silly need for clothing at our destination. I know, how pedestrian of me.
The good news is that Homeland Security has asked for some sort of fee every year since 2002 and have yet to have it approved. The problem is, you know as well as I do, it will eventually get approved, and airline travel costs will once again rise. I had to buy a ticket last week for a business trip next week, and I don’t even like to think about how much it ended up costing. True, it was somewhat “last minute”, but considering how much it cost, I hope I’m getting a solid gold seat.
At what point are all of these fees going to end? There has to be a “breaking point”, but one has to wonder where exactly that is.
Jack | March 10th, 2011 at 3:01 pm #
As I understand it, there's a fundamental problem with profitability and airlines, i.e. the whole industry has shown a net loss for a century. You're right, they're bringing in billions in revenue, but their profits are unpredictable because they're subject to a lot of unpredictable pressures, esp. oil prices. At the same time they know that they're sunk if they start pricing tickets like the luxury items that the economics of air travel suggests they should be.
My suspicion is that we're going to eventually discover that heavier-than-air travel is unsustainable with the technology and business model we currently have. I have to wonder if rail travel and zeppelins are due for a comeback, while airplanes become the province of the super-rich.
Paul O'Flaherty | March 10th, 2011 at 3:39 pm #
With all these baggage taxes people will just stop flying as the cost becomes overly prohibitive. Am I the only one who thought that the security was to give people the confidence and get them flying again. All I can see it doing lately is dissuading them from, and continuing to come up with reasons to discourage people from flying.
Jack | March 14th, 2011 at 7:35 am #
Tracked down where I heard the thing about airline profitability–it's an oft-repeated observation by Warren Buffett that airlines don't repay investment. Looks like he first said it in the early 1990s. I don't have numbers, but I'm apparently willing to assume he does….