The EU wants free hand luggage, but then even those who travel without it will have to pay for it

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With 38 votes in favor and only two against, the European Parliament's Transport Committee has approved a package of changes to EU rules on passenger rights, including free hand luggage. It seems like a favor to travelers: in reality, it is a trip up for low-cost airlines, which will result in damage to consumers, especially those who travel more frequently, often without luggage. The revolution of low-cost flights - which have transformed air travel from a luxury for the few into a service available to everyone - was made possible precisely by the possibility of breaking the service into its constituent components .

By selling them separately, companies can “tailor” their offers to the real needs of each individual, and take indications from market behavior on how to best manage space on aircraft. The fundamental intuition is that people use the plane for different reasons, at different times and therefore have divergent needs : charging each individual the costs (related to the weight and size of the baggage transported) is the best way to ensure that each individual pays for their own and to discourage excess baggage.

Establishing the right of everyone to carry a trolley, in addition to a bag or backpack, will have two main consequences. The first will be to prevent personalized pricing with the effect, therefore, of socializing costs : those who travel light will have to subsidize those who carry more things. The data released by the association Airlines for Europe, which brings together the major European carriers, show that "in one of the most developed markets in the EU, the Spanish one, last year over fifty million passengers (more than the entire Spanish population) traveled without hand luggage and had the opportunity not to pay for a service they did not use".

Knowing that space is paid for anyway, everyone will have an implicit incentive not to skimp, increasing the fight for overhead bins . Alessandro Fonti, president of Aicalf, the Italian association of low-cost airlines, explains: “If Parliament’s position were to become law, everyone would pay for a service that many do not intend to use. And, paradoxically, the lack of space in the cabin would force many passengers to check in their largest bag in the hold at the last minute, creating confusion, frustration and slowing down boarding operations . The result? Delays on departures and additional waits on arrival, at the baggage carousel”. The paradox of the proposal is that it claims to meet the rights of travellers, but does the exact opposite: it takes for granted that there is only one type of passenger (coincidentally, similar to the profile of the MEP who uses the plane to go to Brussels three or four days a week) and pretends that everyone has the same preferences. But this is not the case: everyone has their own reasons and the only effect of these rules, if they come into force, will be to restrict freedom of choice.

Perhaps the initiative of the MEPs is motivated by complaints from passengers or consumer associations who have found opaqueness in the way in which some airlines define prices, making their amount clear only after purchasing the flight. But on this front, new rules are not needed: there are already countless rules to protect consumers, which it is up to the member states to enforce. And in fact, in Italy and elsewhere, there are countless proceedings opened by the competent authorities for the protection of consumers against the commercial practices of airlines. Rather, after months of the Commission discussing simplifications, it is bizarre that the EU Parliament comes out with yet another attempt to micro-regulate a reality that has allowed many to access a transport service that was previously closed to them. Cutting the world with an axe and imposing obsolete and uneconomic practices is not consumer protection: it is the imposition of prejudices .

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