Simple Guide to Understanding Airlines’ Ski Baggage Fees

With a great deal of variation existing between airlines' ski baggage fees and policies, travel search site Skyscanner has launched a straightforward online guide to the cost of bringing ski equipment on flights to the slopes at: http://www.skyscanner.net/news/ski-fees-guide.

The guide analyses more than twenty leading airlines offering flights to ski destinations, looking at whether they allow ski equipment – such as skis, boots and poles – to be taken within the normal hold luggage* allowance or whether a ski fee is charged, if there are weight and dimension restrictions on the hold luggage and, and if these are exceeded, what the additional cost of hold and extra luggage is.

The guide highlights the significant variation in baggage policies between the different airlines; while some of the airlines looked at do allow ski equipment to be carried within the normal hold allowance, most no frills airlines require passengers to pay an extra 'ski fee', meaning passengers have to purchase a further piece of baggage to accommodate their skis, boots and poles. This ranges from £50 return with Jet2 up to £100 return with Ryanair.

Skycanner found that the result of these differing charges means that what may initially seem like the cheapest option could more than triple in price when all the fees are added to become the most expensive total price.

For example when looking on 7 November at flights from January 3rd – 10th 2015 from London (Stansted or Gatwick) to Grenoble, the company found, for example, a Ryanair flight from London to Grenoble for £24.99 each way came to £189.98 with ski carriage for Ryanair compared to £189.14 with BA including ski equipment up to 23kg and £171 with Norwegian Air including ski equipment totalling 40kg.

The guide also highlights that it is not just the differing fees that travellers need to consider when choosing their ski flights, but also length restrictions of baggage. Some airlines (Air France Air Berlin, Delta and KLM) have generous policies allowing passengers to bring baggage of up to 300cm on board while others (US Airways, Austrian, Iberia, Lufthansa and United) will not permit normal hold baggage to be over 158cm in length. It is likely that anyone taller than around 5ft6 would have skis longer than this and as such would be forced to pay for extra ski baggage with these airlines.

For a further level of complication, some airlines also have different policies according to the class of ticket bought. Air France, for example, offer the inclusion of ski equipment in the 'classic' ticket fare price, but do not permit included ski equipment for passengers travelling on their 'mini' flight ticket; Iberia also operates a similar policy.

"We strive to offer the most transparent pricing on our site and this guide takes that one step further by offering clarity around the varied and often confusing ski fee charges that airlines impose. We hope that this will enable customers to make an informed decision when choosing the right flight for them, or indeed whether it is cost effective for them to fly with their own ski equipment," said Skyscanner's Mary Porter.

Good information,confirming that Ryanair are pricing themselves out of the sporting passenger market, a hugely expanding market. If O'Leary thinks this is good business, well good luck to him.

I can't comment about the UK airports enforcing restrictions about ski bag length but I have been using Ryanair and Aer Lingus from Dublin for years and my ski bag is about six foot and I have never been questioned.
I pay for the ski carriage and pack the bag with skis, boots and my clothes for the week and never have a problem.
It's about €40 for a bag return and €60 for a ski bag so to me it's a no brainer.

That's very helpful information, thanks :)

It's a pity, though, that Skyscanner didn't also do some research about hand luggage.
Some airlines only allow one item of hand luggage, others two, and some allow ski boots to be carried in hand luggage and others don't, and some have a weight restriction on hand luggage, and the airlines seem to have different size restrictions on hand luggage.

That sounds ideal from Dublin, just what you need. There are a myriad of different rules according to the airline, ticket type etc. I've sometimes got two pairs of skis in one big bag and paid once no problem, other times I've packed skiwear in with them as you say, but others I've been told to open the bag and only have the one pair of skis in it - nothing else. On a long haul I've had the 'max bag length 1.6m' thing but I just stood at the check in counter saying that was nonsensical when the airline claimed to carry skis and got through it. Generally I find airport staff are as confused as everyone else and unless they're primed to deal with a lot of skiers they just want rid of you asap.

No mention of Swiss, which carries ski kit for free!

Very good information, useful to have it all collated in a single source.

I keep several sets of skis in Austria, so just put boots into my rucsac. For my late season trip last year, I decided to challenge Easyjet's nonsense rule that you cannot take ski boots in your hand baggage.

EJ have a standard hand baggage size that everyone is entitled to take on board. They also have an enhanced size, but, if the aircraft is full, they may ask, at the gate, that your large hand baggage is loaded into the hold.

I always pay the £8 for extended leg room. One feature of this is that you are classed as a Speedy Boarder ~ and SBs are not asked to put their luggage in the hold. I figured that, a) Security are not interested if their Xrays show ski boots, and b) EJ are not going to check bag contents at any stage.

This was for my third trip/fourth week of last season. It all worked well, and hence I achieved a long held ambition to go skiing just with hand baggage!

Now I have bought an extra pair of boots, I plan to leave a pair in Austria. Hence, traveling just with hand baggage might become routine.

Had a problem with LOT airlines, counter staff wouldn't budge from their idea that the ski's and boots had to be in the same bag, else it was 2x fee.