Spending only thirty-nine euros to fly to Barcelona, not bad! It’s a shame that the baggage then arrives in the hold, the choice of seat so as not to end up crushed between two strangers and the transfer from the peripheral airport to the city centre. Magically, the very few 39 euros become 120. The so-called low price exists, and it is only the starting point of a sum that the passenger will only discover in stages. The mechanism is what the carriers themselves call unbundling: the bare seat is sold, everything else is a la carte. And the la carte, as is known, can charge much more than the fixed menu.
Where is the surcharge hidden?
Luggage is absolutely the item that weighs the most. A suitcase in the cabin that is slightly larger than the sizer (the metal frame we find at the gate) can result in an extremely high bill right at the moment of boarding, when there is no alternative. Then we have the seat selection: Ryanair, for example, charges from around 5 to 40 euros each way, therefore, for a family of four, for a return trip, it can easily reach hundreds of euros. We remind you that failure to choose involves the automatic assignment of places, and not necessarily close to each other.
Then there are the costs that do not appear at all on the company’s website, linked to the location of the airports, which are rarely found in the city centre: a taxi from Beauvais, Charleroi or Gerona costs between 30 and 60 euros each way. How can we not mention the tourist taxes, now very widespread (Venice, Barcelona, Amsterdam) which are added to the bill at the time of payment, or directly on site. The effect is always the same: taken individually, each supplement seems reasonable, added up, they change the nature of the trip.
The Spanish fine and the defense of the companies
The case that brought the clash to an institutional level comes from Spain. In November 2024, the Ministry of Social Rights and Consumer Affairs fined five low-cost carriers (Ryanair, EasyJet, Vueling, Norwegian and Volotea) for a cumulative total of 179 million euros. Ryanair had the heaviest share, 107.7 million, while the other companies had amounts ranging between 39.2 million for Vueling and 1.1 million for Volotea. As one might expect, the response from the companies did not take long to arrive and was decidedly clear. IATA, the international air transport association, has condemned the Spanish decision since it was first announced, arguing that the measure undermines the pricing freedom on which competition and consumer choice are based. Banning the surcharge on cabin baggage, according to the association, would mean spreading the cost across all tickets. The underlying argument is always the same, namely that separated fares make flying more accessible, because the customer only pays for the services he uses. The tug-of-war did not end there, given that in June 2025 the High Court of Justice of Madrid suspended the sanctions on Ryanair and Norwegian as a precaution, making the suspension subject to the deposit of a bank guarantee equal to the amount of the fine plus interest (110 million for Ryanair alone).
Brussels on the side of the carriers
The twist came from the European Commission. On 8 October 2025, in the monthly infringement package, Brussels opened an infringement procedure against Spain, claiming that the fines violate Regulation (EC) 1008/2008 on air services, which guarantees carriers the freedom to set prices. The Commission has sent Madrid a letter of formal notice, giving it two months to respond, and if the response is not satisfactory, the next step will be the reasoned opinion and, ultimately, referral to the Court of Justice of the EU.
Obviously the companies rejoiced and Airlines for Europe, the main association of European carriers, defined the decision as “a victory for the passenger’s freedom of choice”, recalling that all its members already include a hand bag in the basic fare and that last year over 50 million passengers heading to Spain were satisfied with that one free piece.
What could change
The European Parliament is moving in the opposite direction to the Commission. On 21 January 2026, the House adopted its position with 632 votes in favour, 15 against and 9 abstentions on the revision of the rules on air passenger rights. The MEPs ask that the passenger has the right to bring on board without additional costs a personal object (be it a bag, a backpack or a laptop, with maximum dimensions of 40x30x15 cm) and a small hand baggage (up to 100 cm in sum of the three dimensions and 7 kg in weight). They also want to eliminate surcharges for correcting errors in passenger names and for check-in, and maintain freedom of choice between paper and digital boarding passes. The text now goes to the Council and if the positions do not agree (for now they are distant) the conciliation phase will open. In the meantime, the price that appears on the comparator will continue to be the one that catches the eye, a flirtatious price in fact, and not the one you actually pay.
