Senators call on airlines to skip baggage fees this summer to shorten TSA lines

Two senators have an idea that they say will get passengers through airport security lines much faster this summer: Stop charging people for checked baggage.

In a letter to a dozen of the country's major airlines, Sens. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) wrote that waiving the fees during the busiest travel time of the year is a "smart, commonsense step to help thwart" the "growing problem" of long security lines. The senators say the lines are clogged with people who use carry-ons because they do not want to pay to check a bag, and they were informed by the TSA that "checkpoints serving carriers that charge baggage fees see 27 percent more roller bags than checkpoints serving carriers that do not charge such fees."

In a statement, the trade organization Airlines for America said it has seen "NO data to suggest charging customers to check a bag equates to a 27 percent increase in the number of carry-on items. The majority of customers who check a bag do not pay to do so. Further, the model of charging customers for services they use and value, like checking a bag, date back to 2008; this is not a new phenomenon." Fom March 14 to 20, almost 6,800 American Airlines passengers did not make their flights due to long lines at security checkpoints, NBC News reports, with the worst delays in Los Angeles, Miami, Dallas, Philadelphia, and Atlanta. American Airlines spokesman Ross Feinstein said the lines at TSA checkpoints "have become unacceptable," and the result is "customers are waiting in TSA lines greater than one hour."

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