Security checkpoints have become a flashpoint at American airports this season as staffing cuts and high passenger volumes are producing enormous screening lines. Many airports are reporting lines of two to three hours long, and passengers are apoplectic, taking to social media and complaining to lawmakers in protest.
Senators Richard Blumenthal and Edward Markey think that a potential solution can come from asking airlines to cut back on checked luggage fees. Over the last several years, airlines have added significant fees to checked bags, resulting in many budget travelers clogging security checkpoints and hauling their luggage on board. By cutting back on those fees, Senators Blumenthal and Markey suggest that more passengers will return to checking bags, alleviating queues caused by excessive baggage screening at passenger checkpoints.
On Tuesday, the Senators published a letter to airlines on their websites, claiming that baggage fees result in 27% more carry-on bags and asking airlines to stop charging fees for the summer.
Whether the concept will gain traction is still unclear. A spokesperson for Airlines for America, the industry lobbying group, brushed off the idea in an interview with NBC News, suggesting that the industry had no data connecting baggage fees and a 27% increase in carry-on luggage rates.
Moving bags from the passenger screening to the checked luggage checkpoints under the airport may also just be redistributing the problem -- baggage still needs to be screened by the TSA and the agency is still understaffed. Last week, technical glitches at Phoenix Sky Harbor saw bags spill out into the airport parking lot, illustrating just how breakable the baggage screening process is.
Still, the campaign from Senators Blumenthal and Markey strikes the right chord on the airport security problem and if nothing else, raises visibility on a significant issue for American travelers this summer. In an industry that made billions in baggage and other ancillary fees last year, however, it may take more than a letter from the Senate to convince the airlines to change their fee structures.
