There is a push to get more and more people to bring carry-on baggage only on most airlines here in the US.  The trend actually started in Europe with airlines such as Ryanair leading the charge but what works there doesn’t necessarily work here.  And the best reasons for it over there are not necessarily the best reasons over here.

 

The duration of trips and even the habits of dressing in Europe are very different from the US / North American markets and lend themselves much more readily to using a carry-on only strategy.   For the LCC carriers of Europe, infrastructure is very different as well.  The secondary airports they often serve have far inferior baggage handling capability than our secondary airports do.  In fact, our secondary airports are often just as busy (proportionately) as they international/hub airports in the same area.  Our secondary airports have to have handling facilities that are commensurate with the traffic. 

 

Boarding and disembarkation is also very different between the two countries.  In Europe, LCC carriers frequently use both entrances to the aircraft (front and back) to disembark passengers while at the same time boarding new ones.  Or they use both entryways to the aircraft at the same time for each function.  Either way, it helps with their turnaround and it’s a model Europeans are accustomed to cooperating with.

 

Not so here.  We board people via one jetway and disembark via one jetway.  Our airport infrastructure was designed and implemented decades ago and is poorly designed to handle thousands of people carrying their life’s possessions.  Our check-in desks are “owned” by airlines and not shared assets.  Our baggage handling is done (primarily) by airline employees instead of shared services provided by ground handling companies.   Our security apparatus wasn’t provided for in the design of airport terminals and, as a result, find us dealing with huge lines that are often bogged down by travelers carrying all their luggage.  Our aircraft fleets are equipped with overhead bins that were really placed there as purse/coat/hat/briefcase storage rather than for heavy carry-on luggage. 

 

And then there is the passenger.   The frequent US traveler is often found carrying more “stuff” such as 2 suits where 1 would do.   This person is often traveling for a longer duration too, requiring more “stuff” as well.  The inexperienced travelers are trying hard to avoid those bag fees but don’t know how to quite do it properly because they learned how to travel in a different time.   How many times have we been behind someone in security who had their cosmetics/shampoo/toothpaste wrongly packaged and packed and holding up the line?  Very few airports have room enough to establish multiple lanes for security and that means we all bottleneck at the least disruption.

 

My own pet peeve is the established frequent flier.  They’ve learned a lot in their time on the road but also engage in practices that inhibit anyone but them.   I’m speaking of the guy in the dark grey suit on my last Airtran flight who boarded, loaded his carry-on into a bin at the front and then walked to the back half of the aircraft to his seat.  Jerk.  He took up space that  others sitting in that area could have used and forced *those* people to put their bags farther back than desired.   This meant that when the plane landed, 4 people attempted to get down the aisle against the flow to gather their own luggage holding the vast majority of people up.  In addition, I had to watch no less than 4 Airtran staff find locations for those bags before we could close the aircraft and depart resulting in a nearly 20 minute delay.

 

My own anecdotal observation is that aircraft aren’t leaving quicker.  The airlines aren’t using fewer people and the flight crew is now taxed with another duty:  policing baggage.   There may be some savings in fuel as a function of less baggage but that could be achieved with stricter checked baggage limits.  Want to bring the weight down?  Set a 30lbs limit per bag instead of 50 lbs.  That will improve things quickly.   Still want a fee for checked baggage and those incremental revenues?  Set that limit at 30lbs for the 1st bag checked and make it free (Set a size limit too!).  Charge $20 for the next bag up to 50lbs.  You’ll still get your incremental revenue but your flows on and off the airplane and inside your own terminal will improve greatly.  Your aircraft turnaround will improve slightly and you should still see some savings on fuel costs as a function of reduced weight. 

 

If you are one of the people that are convinced that airlines lose baggage all the time and for every flight, get over it.  It is an apocryphal story that few have ever experienced.  I’ve been flying for over 20 years and had my luggage “lost” once and twice more it was delayed 2 hours (came in on the next flight.)  I’m not luckier than anyone else.  Does it happen?  Sure.  In most cases, people are reunited with their luggage hours after their arrival in their destination city.  In a few more extreme cases, they see it the next day.  The number of people left after that are so small as a function of the number of flights each day that they aren’t even statistically significant.

 

You can’t add fees without looking to also increase or improve service or you will get extreme backlash in the form of complaints that result mostly from higher expectations.  You can add fees if you change those expectations with reasonable limits and improve the overall perceived service value. 

 

Just because everyone hates most every airline presently doesn’t mean that will always be the case.  Some airlines are already discovering that improving the perceived value is as important as any incremental revenue from fees.  Those are the airlines that will continue to thrive.

Filed under: Airline Fleets, Airline Service, Airports by ajax