Spirit Airlines and Ryanair’s Fees Turn Big Profits
Apparently, plenty of travelers aren’t turned off by airlines that charge extra for everything from paying for flights with a credit card to $3 bottles of water on board the plane. Lately, the most profitable carriers in the U.S. and Europe are the ones that pile on fees at every turn.
The hope among fee-fatigued travelers was that consumers wouldn’t stand for getting nickel-and-dimed by the airlines. The thinking went that once passengers wised up and stopped flying with carriers such as Spirit Airlines, which charge for things like carry-on bags and seating assignments, these airlines would go out of business or be forced to change their fee-happy ways.
Just the opposite appears to be happening.
It’s the airlines that have been reluctant to tack on fees that, after catching wind of the profitability of Spirit and others, are more likely to be changing their ways by copying the more-fees blueprint.
The Wall Street Journal recently pronounced Spirit, the unquestioned leader in travel fees in the U.S., as “pound for pound, the most profitable airline in the U.S.” According to the most recent data, Spirit siphons, on average, $103 per passenger in fees above and beyond the price of a ticket for every round-trip flown. That figure, mind you, was based on charges that have subsequently been jacked up for services such as bringing a carry-on bag aboard the flight—which can now cost as much as $100, up from $45.