Also this year, in view of the summer holidays, Altroconsumo monitored the increases relating to “low cost” flights when you add to the initial prices the extra costs for trolley, checked baggage and seat choice, which can increase the price by up to 363%i.e. the maximum percentage increase found in the survey of five low-cost airlines.
Altroconsumo has in fact selected six return flights for each company considered (easyJet, Ryanair, Volotea, Vueling and Wizz Air) when possible (for a total of 58 flights), with departures from Milan and Rome for national and European tourist and holiday destinations.
THE costs of the most common additional services can be almost four times the initial ticket priceas in the worst case of Wizz Airwhere the initial price of the flight was 24.99 euros, the final price of 115.69 euros, with an increase of expense of 363%. Also for easyJet and Vuelingi extra costs can represent over 300% of the initially proposed cost. With regard to Ryanairthe maximum costs of additional services are very substantial: they are worth more than three times the initial price, going from 14.99 euros to a final price, including the three added items, equal to 54.33 euros, spending therefore increased by 262%. The maximum impact of extra costs is more limited Voloteahowever equal to almost three times the cost of the ticket initially proposed (from 51.39 euros to a final price of 145.39 euros, 183% more).
Compared to the Altroconsumo survey last year (even on different flights), the maximum increase detected is lower: in 2023 it was 465%, this year 363%. This reduction can be explained by the fact that, this year, the initial flight prices were higher than those found last year and therefore, for this reason, the burden of extra costs was reduced.
The investigation also shows that i Checked baggage costs have seen the most significant increase and that for i fixed costshowever, among the noteworthy increases, there are those for oversized hand luggage: for example, for Vueling the maximum penalty has gone from 35 euros to 75 euros and Wizz Air from 25 to 55 euros, more than double in both cases.
Altroconsumo therefore intends to intervene in this situation to protect the right of consumers to travel with hand luggageat no additional cost.
Methodological note
The surveys were carried out in May 2024. For each route Altroconsumo searched for a return flight at the cheapest possible price between 21 June and 7 July 2024. For each flight the purchase process was followed up until payment to detect the costs under investigation, without then proceeding with the purchase of the ticket.
