EU baggage ruling

An adviser to Europe's top court has backed a key element of budget airlines' business model, saying extra charges levied by Spanish carrier Vueling for checking in baggage are in line with European Union rules.

Budget airlines generate a hefty chunk of their revenues from supplementary fees related to check-in, luggage and boarding passes, which for some carriers could be two-fifths of their turnover.

The non-binding opinion from Yves Bot, an advocate general at the Luxembourg-based EU Court of Justice, came in a case involving Vueling, now part of IAG.

Judges, who typically follow the advisers' recommendations in the majority of cases, will rule in the coming months.

Vueling found itself in a Spanish court after a passenger complained about a €40 surcharge levied by the company for checking in two pieces of baggage online.  It was later fined €3,000 by a Spanish consumer body.

A Spanish court subsequently sought guidance from the ECJ as to whether Spanish laws, which ban baggage check-in charges, comply with EU rules.

Bot said that they did not.

"The Spanish legislation which prohibits air carriers from charging for checking-in passengers' baggage in the form of an optional price supplement is incompatible with EU law," he wrote in his opinion. www.vueling.com

Index/Home page
 

OUR READERS' FINEST WORDS (All times and dates are GMT)

All comments are filtered to exclude any excesses but the Editor does not have to agree with what is being said. 100 words maximum