EasyJet passengers are no longer allowed to take a free trolley on board from February, the airline reports Tuesday. Now all passengers are still allowed to take a larger piece of hand luggage, such as a trolley case, to their seat free of charge next to their handbag. In the future, this will only be allowed if customers have booked seats with extra legroom or a front seat.
With its stricter baggage policy, easyJet follows the example of its competitor Ryanair, which has been charging extra costs for taking large items of hand luggage with you since the autumn of 2018.
With the tightening of the rules for hand luggage, easyJet is also tapping into an additional source of income. After all, extra legroom or check-in luggage has to be paid extra. Last year, when aviation was not yet affected by the corona crisis, additional payments for, for example, extra seating space accounted for a fifth of easyJet’s sales.
According to the British airline itself, the main thing is that travelers have more clarity about the options for their luggage. At the moment, large suitcases or bags can still be taken to the passenger area, provided they fit in the lockers above the seats. Chaotic situations with baggage that ultimately do not fit here would cause delays and easyJet now wants to get rid of that. “Punctuality is important to our customers,” said Robert Carey, Chief Commercial Officer.
The intervention comes at a time when aviation is in deep crisis due to travel restrictions against the corona pandemic, with easyJet operating only 20 percent of its normal flight schedule. In the past fiscal year, which ended in September, easyJet carried about half fewer passengers than in the previous fiscal year.
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