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US Senate panel slams increasing airline company seat charges, will call officers to testify

A U.S. Senate panel on Tuesday slammed rising airline company fees for seat tasks and travel luggage and will call air carrier executives to affirm on Dec. 4.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, who chairs the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, will convene a hearing entitled The Sky's the Limitation-- New Revelations About Airline Company Charges with senior executives from American Airlines, United Airlines Delta Air Lines, Spirit Airlines and Frontier to affirm. Blumenthal's report divulged the five airline companies jointly earned $12.4 billion in profits from seat costs in between 2018 and 2023 and said last year for the very first time United earned $1.3. billion in seat costs-- more than the $1.2 billion it made. from inspected bag charges, the report stated.

Blumenthal's panel spent a year investigating, finding. providers are significantly using algorithms to set costs,. targeting prices based upon customer information and stated some. carriers might be preventing federal transport import tax taxes by. labeling some charges as nontaxable charges.

His committee discovered ultra-low cost carriers Frontier and. Spirit paid $26 million to gate representatives and others between 2022. and 2023 to catch passengers allegedly not spending for bag charges. or having extra-large items.

Frontier workers can earn as much as $10 for each bag a. passenger is forced to check at the gate, the report said.

Frontier said: the commission for gate agents is merely. developed to incentivize our staff member to make sure compliance. with bag size requirements so that all customers are dealt with. similarly and relatively. Spirit and United did not comment.

Airline companies for America, a trade group, said the optional charges. that consumers can select, adding average domestic round-trip. fares, including fees, were 14% lower in 2023 genuine terms versus. 2010.

Delta said it is devoted to providing an option of fare. items that finest satisfies our clients' particular travel requirements.

Blumenthal stated Congress ought to need airlines to offer. more in-depth charge disclosures. He stated the USDOT should. examine potential abuses in incentive-based collection of. fees.

Airlines sued to block USDOT's brand-new guideline on upfront. disclosure of airline company costs, while airline company CEOs in 2018. successfully lobbied versus bipartisan legislation to mandate. reasonable and proportional baggage and modification costs.

(source: Reuters)