Airport staff are earning cash bonuses for catching out easyJet passengers travelling with oversized bags, a leaked email has revealed.
An internal email has revealed that staff at Swissport, an aviation company that runs passenger gates at airports, were notified they were “eligible to receive £1.20 (£1 after tax) for every gate bag taken, effective immediately”.
The email, seen by The Sunday Times, was sent to Swissport employees working at seven UK airports in Belfast, Birmingham, Glasgow, Jersey, Liverpool and Newcastle. It introduced them to “the easyJet gate bag revenue incentive”, which is “intended to reward agents doing the right thing” and would result in “payments made directly to employees”. The email was sent in November 2023, and the policy is still in force.
For staff concerned about meeting targets, “internal tracking will be used to identify opportunities for further support and training for individual agents, but will not be used negatively”.
It was signed — with a “Thank you for your ongoing contribution to the success of easyJet” — by Dean Martin, a Swissport station manager at Glasgow airport. The email and its contents was first reported by the Jersey Evening Post.
Ground handlers employed by another aviation company, DHL Supply Chain, at Gatwick, Bristol and Manchester airports also have a remuneration package for identifying non-compliant easyJet bags. The employees receive “a nominal amount” per bag.
EasyJet, which last year made £9 billion in revenue, allows passengers to take a small bag that fits under their seat for free. Larger bags can be put in the overhead lockers for prices starting at £5.99. For a one-way flight this week from Gatwick to Palma, Mallorca, the cost is £32.99.
The financial incentive for boarding-gate staff applies if they catch a passenger whose bag is deemed too big to be taken into the cabin, either because they have not paid to take a larger suitcase on board or because their free hand luggage is too large.
Boarding gates at airports usually have a metal box with the dimensions of baggage allowed on the plane. Passengers boarding flights are asked to check their bags in the box.
An easyJet frame to check luggage size at Gatwick
ALAMY
Many travellers complain that they have been forced to pay an additional fee for their bags, and sometimes put their bags in the hold, despite their luggage seeming to meet the correct dimensions. In some cases it has led to furious rows at the boarding gate.
EasyJet charges £48 at the gate — £1.20 of which is paid to the ground handler. The airline does not have oversight on the commission paid to DHL Supply Chain or Swissport staff because both companies manage the payments directly with their employees.
Emily Thomas Adderson, 44, flew with easyJet from Gatwick to Athens with her husband David, 44, and their three daughters, Lily, 8, Poppy, 10, and Daisy, 12, for a half-term holiday.
Emily and David Thomas Adderson and daughters Lily, Poppy and Daisy on holiday
COURTESY OF EMILY THOMAS ADDERSON
But the family holiday got off to a bad start after all five of their bags were seized by boarding gate staff for being too big to fit beneath an airplane seat.
The Thomas Adderson family’s bags fitted into the easyJet frame — but they were still charged £240 extra
COURTESY OF EMILY THOMAS ADDERSON
The family, who live in Guernsey, had to pay £240 to take the bags on board. Thomas Adderson said this was despite their bags being within the free hand baggage size and fitting inside the measurement box by the gate.
When on board the plane, Thomas Adderson said she put her bag under her seat anyway.
Emily Thomas Adderson’s bag under her seat
COURTESY OF EMILY THOMAS ADDERSON
“There is no rhyme or reason for why you get singled out,” said Thomas Adderson, who works in finance. “They are so aggressive and then say you can join the back of the queue and not board the plane if you want, so you have to just give in and pay.
“I don’t know what the secret is but I am sure there must be an incentive to get people to pay extra. There is never any kindness or human approach to the process, you just get targeted in the queue.
“It is hard enough to travel now and it has just made us really question doing that sort of thing. We haven’t been away since.”
On the last day of the holiday, the family’s hire car was broken into while they were sightseeing at the Acropolis and all their bags were stolen.
“So we didn’t have to fight the flight attendants on the way home,” Thomas Adderson said.
A spokesman for easyJet said the bags were “marginally outside the gauge” but apologised to the family and refunded the extra charges.
Swissport has passenger services at 17 airports in the UK and its staff are stationed at more than 200 airports worldwide. The aviation company also provides ground handling services for Ryanair, Tui, Lufthansa and Vueling.
Ryanair said it did not offer a financial incentive to Swissport staff at its gates, but did not respond to multiple requests for comment on whether it has an agreement with other third parties to which it contracts ground handling services.
Lufthansa said it did not offer financial incentives to its boarding gate staff. Tui and Vueling have not yet responded to requests for a comment.
Swissport ground handlers earn about £12 per hour. One former Swissport passenger service manager, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he and his colleagues had no choice but to police the line on oversized baggage.
“Confronting people with excess baggage is like taking on fare dodgers,” he said. “You risk abuse or worse — imagine stopping a group of lads on a stag weekend and telling them, ‘I’m going to have to charge you more than you paid for your tickets to check those bags into the hold’.”
• Hand luggage: Ryanair, easyJet and British Airways policies explained
Luggage has become a lucrative tool for airlines and bags can now cost more than the plane seat. Size allowances differ, depending on the airline, and several have shrunk in recent years. However, last week, Ryanair announced it is increasing its allowance from 40cm x 25cm x 20cm to 40cm x 30cm x 20cm, which equates to 24 litres.
Last month, the EU proposed new rules that would allow passengers to bring one personal item, such as a handbag, backpack or laptop, and one item of cabin baggage weighing up to 7kg on board free of charge. The change, which would apply to any flight taking off or landing in the EU, still needs approval from 55 per cent of member nations.
Coby Benson, a solicitor at the consumer law firm Bott and Co, said he welcomed the proposals because “transparency and fairness in airline pricing must be the priority”.
He added: “For years, passengers have faced premium charges simply for bringing a carry-on bag on board. Baggage charges have quietly become a major source of revenue for airlines, often catching passengers off-guard.
“The revelation that airport staff are receiving financial incentives for seizing non-compliant cabin bags only adds to the perception that the system is stacked against consumers.”
Swissport, which also offers cargo handling services, is owned by various private investors. It revenue last year was €3.7 billion, an 11 per cent increase on the previous year. Its head offices are in Zurich, Switzerland.
A spokesman for Swissport said: “We serve our airline customers and apply their policies under terms and conditions for managing their operation. We’re highly professional and our focus is on delivering safe and efficient operations, which we do day in and day out for four million flights per year.”
A spokeswoman for DHL Supply Chain said the company requires “all colleagues to consistently adhere to [the easyJet baggage policy] and this is recognised as part of their remuneration”.
She added: “Doing so ensures we provide a smooth travel experience for every passenger.”
A spokesman for easyJet said: “EasyJet is focused on ensuring our ground handling partners apply our policies correctly and consistently in fairness to all our customers.
“Our bag policies and options are well understood and we remind customers of this when booking, before they travel and on their boarding pass, which means a very small proportion of customers who don’t comply will be charged at the airport.”