As airlines have jacked up baggage fees for consumers, the cost is increasingly being borne by the government, not passengers.

 

To avoid paying baggage fees, airline passengers are taking more carry-on luggage with them. That means the airport screeners working for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) are spending more time to scan bags, raising operational costs for security checkpoints.

 

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano estimates the cost to TSA is about $260 million annually.

 

After hearing this figure during a congressional hearing, Senator Mary Landrieu (D-Louisiana) raised the question of whether the airlines should now bear some of this cost. “Do the taxpayers have to pick up this fee? Or should we be looking at the airlines for some of the profits that they make from these fees to offset the cost to the taxpayer,” said Landrieu.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

More Carry-On Bags Costing Taxpayers a Quarter-Billion (by Alicia Caldwell, Associated Press)