Airport staff get bonuses for flagging oversized baggage, email shows

Airport stuff are eligible to a £1.20 per bag bonus

Staff from one of the world's largest aviation services company Swissport are "eligible to receive £1.20 (£1 after tax) for every gate bag taken”, according to a message sent to staff at seven airports in the UK and the Channel Islands.

Some of these airports include Birmingham, Glasgow, Jersey and Newcastle.

These payments are to reward gate staff "doing the right thing", as per a leaked email explaining easyJet's "gate bag revenue incentive” scheme.

Furthermore, the email disclosed that "internal tracking will be used to identify opportunities for further support and training for individual agents, but will not be used negatively”.

The email and its contents was first reported by the Jersey Evening Post.

It has also emerged that DHL Supply Chain a handling company at Gatwick, Bristol and Manchester airports are being paid extra for flagging "non-compliant" easyJet bags with employees receiving a "nominal amount" as per the Sunday Times.

Ground handlers for Swissport earn about £12 an hour.

Speaking to the Sunday Times, a former passenger service manager at the aviation services company, speaking anonymously, said they had no choice but to enforce the oversized baggage rules.

He said: “Confronting people with excess baggage is like taking on fare dodgers.

“You risk abuse or worse, imagine stopping a group of lads on a stag weekend and telling them I’m going to have to charge you more than you paid for your tickets to check those bags into the hold.”

On easyJet flights, a passenger can be charged £48 if a bag is non-compliant.

Every passenger gets to take one small bag that fits under the seat for free, with larger bags that need to be stored in overhead lockers requiring a fee.

The email in question was sent by a Swissport manager in November 2023, but the policy remains in place today.

Swissport said: “We serve our airline customers and apply their policies under terms and conditions for managing their operation. We’re highly professional and our focus is on delivering safe and efficient operations, which we do day in and day out for 4m flights per year.”

EasyJet explained that it used a multitude of handling agents across the UK and Channel Islands and that they reward directly without its oversight.

The airline said: “EasyJet is focused on ensuring our ground handling partners apply our policies correctly and consistently in fairness to all our customers.