Those passengers travelling with Wizz Air, a Hungary-based airline, from any British Airport, should be prepared to pay for hand luggage as the airline has announced a new cabin baggage policy.
From October 4, 2012, passengers booking Wizz Air tickets for travel from October 24, 2012, onwards, will only be allowed a small cabin bag of up to 42 x 32 x 25cm free of charge. All other kinds of bags taken as carry-on luggage will be charged a fee of £9 per bag.
The airline has previously tested its new airline baggage policy on its Luton Airport to Katowice (Poland) route, and claims very good results. Since August 1, this year, passengers on the route have been paying €10 for a larger piece of cabin baggage, a step that the airline has taken to control the problem of lack of storage space on smaller aircraft.
Michael Powell, the chief financial officer of Wizz Air, said, ‘When it comes to low fares Wizz Air knows no half measures! Wizz Air is announcing its new and innovative cabin baggage policy after a successful trial confirmed that more onboard space and cost savings are achieved when passengers bring less large bags into the cabin.
With the vast majority of passengers willing to bring smaller bags on board we are now the first European carrier to eliminate a chronic problem in the airline industry faced by all airlines, but, even more important for consumers, Wizz Air is again pioneering in delivering lower fares by passing on the cost savings in the form of discounted fares for all passengers.
We leave it for high fare airlines to tackle their costs by raising fares and levying unavoidable fuel surcharges while Wizz Air passengers will continue to pay only for the services they use. Today we encourage our passengers to travel smart and bring only a small bag on board. To pass on the expected cost savings we are immediately discounting by £4.50 all fares available for booking under the new cabin bag policy at wizzair.com.’
