Checked baggage cost to airline
How much does it cost a large airline to handle a checked-in bag for a point-to-point A320/B737 flight compared to it being cabin baggage ?
Consider an airline which carries at least 10 million passengers a year and self handles (or has obtained a very competitive deal with a handling company) at its home base/hub. If an economy class passenger flying on an A320/B737 with no connections checks in and obtains a boarding pass online but needs to check in a within-size-limits bag to the hold for the flight.... how much will it cost the airline to process that baggage handling, as opposed to the passenger taking it as a cabin bag ?
I realise that if a passenger uses a self-tagging baggage check machine it'll be significantly cheaper than involving a human being at a check-in desk... but I would be interested in having some sort of idea of the cost per bag to the airline. Assume that all the costs around bag check (e.g. desk rental, employing person in the terminal, IT system cost, employing people to load the bag onto the aircraft before departure and unload at arrival, paying out for lost bags, etc) all need to be accounted for - so you can't argue "well the infrastructure is all in place so there is no cost"
Yes, you could give a "how long is a piece of string" type of response, but there must be some sort of rough number
Last edited by davidjohnson6; 24th Nov 2022 at 15:52.