Spanish authorities have issued fines to four low-cost airlines over hand luggage charges and other abusive practices. Easyjet, Ryanair, Volotea and Vueling have all been fined by the Spanish Ministry of Consumer Affairs, with the total penalty from all four carriers amounting to over 150 million euros.
Though the exact size of the levies has not been made public at the time of writing, the Ministry confirmed that Ryanair had received the heftiest fine, after becoming the first airline to charge extra for hand luggage in 2018. Vueling was hit by the second largest penalty, with Easyjet and Volotea, bringing up the rear.
The news, according to a Ministry spokesperson, comes a year after the government body opened proceedings against the four airlines. As well as responding to the hand luggage fees, other practices deemed unacceptable were charges for passengers wishing to choose a seat next to a dependent or infant and limiting cash payments for tickets at airports. But it was the luggage fees that came in for the most intense criticism.
Spanish consumer rights association (FACUA) welcomed the penalties. “It has been almost six years of battling to get the authorities to act against practices whereby airlines have been illegally inflating their profits and we have finally succeeded,” FACUA’s secretary general, Ruben Sanchez, said in a statement.
As the carriers launch appeals against the decision, the president of the Association of Airlines, Javier Gándara, has slammed the “disproportionate” penalties, which he says go against European fare setting rules. But the European Parliament adopted a resolution in autumn 2023 to eliminate hand luggage charges which it deemed “a necessary aspect” of travel, amid moves to standardise carry-on dimensions for all airlines operating in the EU bloc.
Gándara has also claimed that regulating the way airlines charge could mean 50 million passengers could end up paying for services they will not use.
But FACUA rejected the idea that making some passengers pay extra for selected services keeps prices down for other flyers.
“The industry is trying to convey the idea that they are making the price cheaper for those who do not carry luggage, and this is false,” Sanchez said, pointing out that Ryanair’s net profit, announced last week, had jumped by 33% to 1.92 billion euros. “They are illegally making the price more expensive; they are illegally enriching themselves with many millions of euros with those who do carry small hand luggage.”
The consumer champion urged passengers to seek refunds for any such charges they had paid for.
