Alicante ‘low-cost’ airlines fined | Penalty on low-cost airlines will increase ticket prices for 70% of passengers at Alicante-Elche airport

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs has approved a fine for five low-cost airlines that operate in Spain and charge fees for hand luggage or boarding pass printing. In the first case, the fine was 150 million euros. After the companies appealed, their charges were dismissed and the sanctions, increased to 179 million euros, were confirmed.

The Airline Association (ALA) continues to criticize these measures and calls them “nonsense.” ALA President Javier Gándara assured that these companies will appeal the Consumer’s decision in the controversial administrative jurisdiction, since it is “clearly illegal, inexplicable and could seriously and irreversibly harm many passengers.”

Moreover, airlines have already warned that they will raise ticket prices if this fine and the obligation to include hand luggage in the ticket price come into force. Gandara assured that the resolution would “irreparably harm passengers by forcing them to pay for benefits they may not need.”

Currently, about 50 million people travel without this baggage, and the fine would force them to “subsidize this service to other passengers,” Gándara said. A decision that will significantly affect Alicante-Elche airport, where the five fined airlines will concentrate 70% of passengers in 2024.

So, according to the airport manager Ena until October. In total they carry 11 million passengers.

So far, 15.89 million people have passed through the Alicante terminal, the highest figure in its history. Seven in 10 passengers fly on fined “low-cost” airlines, which will lead to higher ticket prices if the fine comes into force to compensate for including hand luggage.

Prices will depend on the final sanctions, although Ryanair, the main airline of Alicante-Elche airport, faces 60% of the total fine, more than 107 million euros. The consequences worry companies, who warn of “very harmful consequences that could be experienced by passengers.”

Market freedom and competition in Europe

In this sense, Gandara also sharply criticized the Consumer’s decision, saying that this “illegal interference, which threatens the freedom of the market, constitutes a comparative offense in relation to the countries around us where such practices are not prohibited.”

In fact, Gándara goes further and argues that the European Commission’s position on carry-on baggage is “consistent with airline practice” and responds that the community leader is “defending” the freedom of airlines to set airfares and questions the requirement for companies to include free hand luggage.”

The ALA President recalls that in this regard, back in March 2013, in response to a parliamentary question, the Commission firmly stated that “charging for hand luggage of any size is permitted.”

Gándara denounces that “it makes no sense for the Ministry of Consumer Affairs to unilaterally authorize the collection of baggage in the cabin, ignoring the European Commission, which advocates the establishment of common industry standards for the weight and dimensions of this baggage,” and insists that the EC itself “recognized consumer benefits this practice provides by giving passengers the ability to choose and pay only for the services they need.”