Transavia Introduces Fee for Cabin Baggage, Following Budget Airline Trend

The new year starts badly for Transavia passengers. They will now have to pay for cabin baggage on board its planes, announced Olivier Mazzucchelli, CEO France of the company, to Le Figaro. This service, which was previously free, took into account compliance with the rules set by the company. The Dutch low-cost airline is thus joining its competitors EasyJet and Ryanair. The latter was the first airline to make cabin baggage payable in 2018. Other companies have since followed suit. Charging a hand luggage fee of ten euros would bring in 600 million euros to airlines in a year, according to calculations by TF1. The Air France-KLM low-cost airline has not yet specified the date of entry into force of the measure.

This measure could annoy passengers, but also members of the European Parliament. The latter are opposed to the surcharge. The elected representatives have in this sense asked the European Commission to act: to implement a ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union, according to which airlines should not charge a supplement. Hand luggage is an "essential element of passenger transport" and if it "meets reasonable weight and size requirements", it should not be subject to a surcharge, the text states.