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The CEO of Frontier Airlines is upset that the government accused his company of gouging customers for bag fees. In an interview with Reuters, Barry Biffle compared flyers who try not to pay for checked bags to thieves.
“These are shoplifters, these are people that are stealing,” he told the news service. “It’s not equitable to everyone who follows the rules.”
A recent Senate investigation report criticized the airline industry for squeezing billions of dollars out of its customers above and beyond the cost of their tickets. Executives from those companies are in Washington, D.C. Wednesday to defend themselves before a Senate panel.
One finding in the report that caught Biffle’s attention was that Frontier and now-bankrupt budget peer Spirit Airlines had paid $23 million in recent years to gate agents in order to catch customers who didn’t pay up. Frontier does not allow free checked or carry-on bags like more traditional airlines.
“Frontier personnel can earn as much as $10 for each bag a passenger is forced to check at the gate,” the report says, adding that an unnamed “Frontier official told the Subcommittee that bag policy enforcement was necessary because the airline does not want customers to be taking more or ‘stealing’ from the airline.”
Though Frontier is trying to chase higher-end customers amid a period of difficulty for low-fare airlines, the company still makes a lot of its money from fees for things like snacks and seat assignments. According to its most recent annual report, 64% of its $3.5 billion in 2023 passenger revenue came from so-called “ancillary” streams.
Echoing Delta Air Lines (DAL-2.69%) CEO Ed Bastian, Biffle told Reuters that he’s looking forward to the looming second presidency of Donald Trump. Bastian said last month that Trump will be a “breath of fresh air” for the industry after Biden’s administration had gone after carriers for junk fees and sought stronger consumer protections. Biffle agreed with that outlook.
“There’s also going to be kind of a unshackling,” he told Reuters. “We’re going to focus on things that matter, like, like safety, and stop worrying about regulating prices and regulating experiences.”