Good news for travelers in the USA! Southwest Airlines continues its “outlier” policy of not charging for a checked bag. While every other major carrier in the United States charges for a checked bag — generally in the $15 – $25 range for a one way flight — Southwest CEO Gary Kelly says it makes sense for the airline not to charge for bags. Last month JetBlue began charging for bags; up to that point, it also had not had a fee for checked baggage.
The Southwest CEO said Southwest would lose market share if it charged for checked luggage, something I know to be true because frequently members of my family fly Southwest specifically because it does not charge this high fee. Southwest remains very profitable posting net income of $608,000,000 in the 2nd quarter of 2015. This was the 9th consecutive quarter of record earnings for the company.
So it is possible to run a quality airline profitably without that annoying baggage fee. Southwest could join the stampede of airlines to impose this profitable tidbit but, to the great benefit of its customers, has not. That’s the kind of business I like to patronize. Kudos, Southwest! Keep it up!!
More on this story from the Los Angeles Times at this link.
This really is good news! It makes a huge difference when an airline tries to make the customer happy.