Airline Fees, Airline Industry | featured news

A $10 priority-boarding fee here, a $25 checked-bag fee there; pretty soon, you’re talking real money. $22.6 billion, in fact. According to the annual Amadeus Review of Ancillary Revenue Results released Monday, that’s how much ancillary revenue 50 airlines around the world reported making in 2011, a 66-percent jump from the $13.5 billion that the 47 airlines that reported such income made in 2009.

When the airline industry took a nose dive a decade ago, executives at global carriers scrambled to find a quick fix to avoid financial ruin. What they came up with, according to federal prosecutors, was a massive price-fixing scheme among airlines that artificially inflated passenger and cargo fuel surcharges between 2000 and 2006 to make up for lost profits.

Airlines make billions of dollars in fees for check-on luggage, refreshments and other services formerly included in ticket prices, but consumers have a hard time figuring out how much they'll pay in total to fly, a congressional committee heard Wednesday.