35% of air travellers have paid for excess baggage charges at the airport when flying from the UK in the past two years.
The UK’s leading discount website has revealed that people flying from the UK spend an impressive £1,602,300,000 collectively on excess baggage charges at the airport per year, with just over a third claiming that they were charged for excess baggage when flying in the past two years.
With Christmas just around the corner and many people heading on a flight to arrive at their Christmas destinations, the UK’s leading discount website wanted to have a closer look into travellers’ finances when it came to going abroad; specifically any extra fees that can be incurred at the airport.
MyVoucherCodes polled 1,235 people who had flown from UK in the past two years. The poll initially asked respondents, ‘Have you had to pay for excess baggage charges at the airport when flying from the UK in the past two years?’, to which just over a third, 35%, answered ‘yes’.
The respondents who claimed to have incurred excess baggage charges at the airport were then asked to specify how much excess weight they were carrying in the bag that they were charged for. According to the results, the average excess weight people carry in their bags when flying from the UK was ‘2.8 kilos’.
Respondents who were charged for excess baggage were also asked how much they were charged per kilo. When taking all responses into account, the average person had to pay ‘£15’, per kilo. Therefore, with airline travellers admitting to carrying an average of 2.8 kilos of extra luggage, the average those flying from the UK have to pay at the airport in excess baggage charges comes to ‘£42’.
Following the official figures released by the Civil Aviation Authority UK airports handled 109,000,000 departing passengers in 2011. Based on this figure, 38,150,000 passengers have to fork out for excess baggage charges when flying from the UK. Taking this further, with the average person paying £42 for their excess baggage when at the airport, passengers therefore collectively spend £1,602,300,000 per year on excess baggage charges at the airport.
Of all of the respondents taking part, 83% claimed that they felt that many UK airlines did not offer adequate weight allowances for hold baggage.
Mark Pearson, Chairman of MyVoucherCodes.co.uk, commented on the findings: “Even though low-cost airlines offer great deals to go on holiday abroad, most charge passengers extra money on the side and you can often end up paying more money for your luggage than your flight itself. Just over two kilos of excess baggage doesn’t seem like that much per person, but when you realise how much we collectively pay as a nation for excess baggage, the results are shocking!”
He continued: “With the Christmas holidays upon us, there is a big chance Britons are going to carry a lot more than usual with all of their Christmas presents in their bags. I would advise anyone travelling with gifts to book extra baggage in advance, which can usually offer a much better deal than the extortionate extra baggage fees at the airport.”
Tatiana is the news coordinator for TravelDailyNews Media Network (traveldailynews.gr, traveldailynews.com and traveldailynews.asia). Her role includes monitoring the hundreds of news sources of TravelDailyNews Media Network and skimming the most important according to our strategy.
She holds a Bachelor's degree in Communication & Mass Media from Panteion University of Political & Social Studies of Athens and she has been editor and editor-in-chief in various economic magazines and newspapers.
