When buying a plane ticket, some airlines charge supplements for a lot of variables, including if you want to bring a carry-on suitcase, including only a small toiletry bag on the ticket. No matter how “low cost” these airlines are, Europe has now taken measures to ensure that carrying a carry-on bag is included in the price and is not an extra.
The plenary session of the European Parliament has approved a non-binding resolution, which must be submitted to public consultation, to ensure that traveling with hand luggage is included in the price of all airlines.
Free hand luggage for everyone
Currently, not all airlines guarantee that you can carry a carry-on suitcase for free, without a higher cost in the price of the plane ticket. The European Parliament considers that this causes inconvenience and inconvenience to citizens due to the lack of coherence between the rules applied by the different airlines. To this end, it calls for a review of European Union legislation on air passenger rights to solve this problem.
Currently, the lack of common regulations on permitted cabin baggage leads to hidden fees on airlines such as Ryanair or Wizz, making it difficult to compare prices when purchasing plane tickets. The situation is complicated if several airlines are used or plans change, the European Parliament text states.
The Plenary Session of the European Parliament approved this Wednesday by show of hands in Strasbourg, at the request of Citizens MEP Jordi Cañas, a non-binding resolution that recognizes the right of all EU passengers to carry a carry-on suitcase at no additional cost. “It is an obligation. We make public a right that many citizens do not know, do not know and do not demand. “We want to inform citizens of their rights, but above all we ask the Commission to force all companies to comply with the law.”
There should be no additional charge
When we want to fly, depending on the airline, we may find ourselves having to pay a surcharge on the price of the ticket, either during online check-in or directly at the counters or when boarding.
This new regulation to have these hand luggage included would be in line with a 2014 ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union, which already ruled at that time that companies should not charge a supplement for hand luggage, as long as it meets “reasonable requirements in terms of weight and dimensions, and complies with applicable security requirements.” ».
We also want to work on standardizing these carry-on bags, whose authorized measurements also vary depending on the airline you fly with. The idea is to address the need to harmonize the measurements and weight of suitcases so that all airlines operating in the EU use the same standards. Parliament also believes that legislative changes should address other hidden costs in airfares, such as those applied for seat selection.
