MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Airlines operating in Brazil allowed to charge for pax' luggage: lower fares?
The Brazilian government authorized airlines operating in the country to charge for passengers luggage, among other rules that are scheduled to become effective on 14 March 2017. The new rules were approved unanimously and made public on Tuesday by the country's air transport regulator National Civil Aviation Agency, ANAC. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rules“While aviation officials are not certain exactly how far prices will go down, they believe that simply knowing how much baggage each passenger will check allows flight staff to separate out space in the holder for commercial cargo, thus bringing down the prices paid by passengers”.
Dec 14th, 2016 - 08:49 pm - Link - Report abuse 0That sounds like a lot of BS.....first of all, 'experience' tells me fare prices will not go down ; second, how in hell are they going to know, before the psassenger has checked-in his baggage, how much space will be left for commercial cargo...or does that mean they are going to hold the plane after passengers have boarded, while they do the calculations and then start loading the commercial cargo ??
No, passengers have to book and pay for their bags in advance, and there are fines if it weighs over the allowed amount, so the airline knows beforehand how much cargo to load.
Dec 15th, 2016 - 12:27 am - Link - Report abuse 0As for prices going down, depends if you get some Ryan Air style cheapo airlines that have worked out how to cut costs.
But I thought you'd be in favour of this since it's removing government legislation and letting airlines decide how much to charge for what luggage?
@DT
Dec 15th, 2016 - 04:49 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“No, passengers have to book and pay for their bags in advance,...” Ok, tks for the clarification. Still find it a bit impracticable, but I suppose things will eventually sort themselves out.
I am in favour of free competition, allowing airlines to fix their own rules (some better, some worse than today's options), not a government agency (ANAC) imposing rules on all airlines and leaving the passengers with no options. In other words, just the opposite of “removing government legislation”....the only thing airlines will probably get to have a say in, is 'how much they will charge'....but knowing that things work like a cartel, differences will be minimal.
I do think however that airlines should definitely control the carry-ons, as many passengers are being allowed to abuse the system...if you are near the last to get on a flight, rarely will you find any space in the overhead bin, and if you do, it's miles away from your seat. Not very convenient on a long-haul, overnight flight.
Besides, I've never seen any airline (far less a govt agency) operating in Brazil, honour claims that prices (of fares) will drop due to the removal of other benefits, until now taken for granted. In the not-so-distant past, there were no boarding costs, no costs for issuing the ticket, no paying for drinks and meals, no one-sided clauses allowing huge fines for changing dates or cancelling.....none of these impositions resulted in benefits for passengers, so I don't believe rates will drop now just because they'll be able to charge for baggage. For the passenger, it's always been a lose-lose situation.
On one hand, the air-fairs will be less expensive and on the other, the extra charges will be slapped on the travelers. So ultimately; there is hardly any benefit - neither to the passengers nor to the airlines; besides increasing bureaucracy and the workload. Who knows; in the future, they may even charge the over-weight!
Dec 16th, 2016 - 09:18 am - Link - Report abuse 0@ Jack Bauer
Dec 16th, 2016 - 12:57 pm - Link - Report abuse 0It did say each airline will be able to decide what kinds of baggage services to offer and how to price them, whereas before, they were forced to offer 'free' check in of bags (really included in the ticket price).
With the low cost airlines like Ryanair, it is actually possible to get a cheap flight, but you have to be careful to avoid all the 'optional' extras - no hold luggage, no food, check in online in advance, don't choose your seat, etc, etc. And Ryanair even has a charge for paying, which is unavoidable.
But I think the prices will only go down if some low cost carrier moves into Brazil, or one is started there, that provides competition and forces the others to start lowering their prices. This is what happened in Europe, now there are lots of airlines that use the Ryanair business model and specialise in cheap flights.
Oh, and I wouldn't be optimistic about the hand luggage. Charging to check in bags and the absurdly low weight limits some airlines use has vastly increased the amount of hand luggage people bring. I just bring a rucksack and put it under the seat in front of me, I prefer not to spend an hour queuing in order to be the first to board and then another 30 extra minutes sitting in a cramped seat when I can be free to walk around in departures and get on easily once the rush is over.
@ Smiley Face
If there is no benefit for the airlines, they can always go back to the old system. It didn't say they were making it compulsory to charge for baggage. And don't they charge for over-weight baggage now? It sounds unfeasible not to, people would just abuse the system.
@DT
Dec 18th, 2016 - 07:24 pm - Link - Report abuse 0”...whereas before, they were forced to offer 'free' check in of bags (really included in the ticket price).”
That's exactly one of my points....first of all, do you really think that the airlines 'free' check-in was truly free ? it was always built-in to the costs, and reflected in the price of the fares.
Second of all, airlines in Brazil have never really had to compete against each other, in that the price of tickets (same class, same route) seldom varied by more than a few dollars ....now it probably wont be very different, the prices for checked luggage, between the airlines will probably be much the same....however, at this moment it's a bit premature to discuss this any further, given that the Senate has revoked the ANAC's resolution. More discussion will be needed before any new ruling is established. It should come about naturally, based on free-competition, but the arlines that already fly in /out of Brazil (and domestically I presume, although I haven't taken any domestic flights recently), will do their best to obstruct the entry of new, low cost airlines...protectionism is still very much alive in Brazil.
An example of the Brazilian enterpreneurs' mindset : supermarkets, until 2 or 3 years ago, always provided plastic shopping bags for free...then the government obliged them to substitute the plastic bags for biodegradable ones....although the cost of the plastic ones had always been built-into their costs, when the biodegradable ones came along they decided to charge the customer for them...R$ 0.08 per bag....peanuts really, but a good example of double charging...I don't think the airlines will be any different....but as they say, “seeing is believing”...
I can see the benefits of a rucksack, and I think they are fine - for a relativey short flight, as well as a really short vacation or business trip...but flying 9 to 12 hours and spending 6 weeks abroad won't fit into a rucksack.
The passengers who need more space and weigh more: Shouldn't they pay more?
Dec 23rd, 2016 - 09:22 am - Link - Report abuse 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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