Government Urged to Halt Ryanair Cabin Bag Charge

A consumer watchdog has denounced Spain’s government for not stepping in and preventing Ryanair from enforcing their latest cabin bag charge policy, and adding Wizz Air to their targets for similar activities.

FACUA is urging the government to take the example set by Italian authorities and forbid Ryanair and Wizz Air from continuing with their new policy of charging for hand luggage that passengers carry with them.

The competition agency in Italy has taken this measure considering that including this cost after purchase is, “a false representation of the real price of the ticket”.

The association, therefore, rejects that the government has not put a stop to a measure that would also violate Spanish legislation, while criticising the airlines who continue to “increase the services for which the user is charged and reducing those included in the ticket”.

“As always, in Spain, large companies have an open bar to commit abuses,” according to Ruben Sanchez , spokesperson for FACUA, continuing, “the absolute passivity of the Ministry of Development and its State Agency for Air Safety (AESA) for a practice that FACUA denounced in August without us having had any answer to date”.

Sanchez insists that the government, “immediately open sanctioning proceedings against Ryanair and Wizz Air”, whilst continuing to complain that “the Irish airline has refused to pay compensation established by European legislation to passengers affected by strikes this summer and the Ministry of Development has not announced forceful sanctions.”

After the complaint filed against Ryanair in August, FACUA has just filed a complaint with AESA against Wizz Air for the same reason, since this airline is applying exactly the same policy as the Irish company with regard to hand luggage.

Once again, the association remembers that this new policy of charging for cabin baggage would go against the Air Navigation Law itself. Thus, article 97 of the law establishes that “the carrier will be obliged to transport free of charge in the cabin, as hand luggage, the objects and packages that the traveller carries”, while only acting as an exception to deny their transportation for ” reasons of safety, related to the weight or size of the object in relation to the characteristics of the aircraft.”