---
title: "U.S. Airlines Collected $1.2B in Baggage Fees in Third Quarter"
description: "Passengers also shelled out $720.2 million to change plane reservations from July through September, according to federal statistics."
date: "2017-12-11"
modified: "2017-12-12"
authors:
  - name: "Kate Gibson"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/kate-gibson"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/article/16887/u-s-airlines-collected-1-2b-in-baggage-fees-in-third-quarter"
categories:
  - "News"
tags:
  - "airline profit"
  - "Aviation"
  - "baggage fees"
  - "luggage"
  - "U.S. airlines"
  - "U.S. Department of Transportation"
---

# U.S. Airlines Collected $1.2B in Baggage Fees in Third Quarter

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/2017/11/ap_884580059435.jpg>)
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Passenger airlines took in $1.2 billion in baggage fees in the third quarter of 2017, with the tally representing nearly 3 percent of total operating revenue of $45.6 billion, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics [reported](<https://www.bts.gov/newsroom/3rd-quarter-2017-airline-financial-data>) on Monday.

Still, separate data released last month by the government found major carriers losing less luggage than in times past, so there is a [silver lining](<https://www.thedrive.com/article/16531/u-s-airlines-are-losing-less-luggage>) for travelers paying to check their bags.

Passengers also shelled out $720.2 million in reservation-change fees, 1.6 percent of total operating revenue.

Airlines collected $34.2 billion from fares, making up 75 percent of total operating revenue in the July-through-September period.

The 24 carriers reported an after-tax net profit of $3.7 billion in the three-month period, down from $4.7 billion in the second quarter and from $3.8 billion in the year-ago timeframe, the federal agency said. As a group, the passenger airlines reported an after-tax net profit for an eighteenth consecutive quarter.

The airlines tallied a $6.3 billion pre-tax operating profit in the third quarter, down from $7.7 billion in the second quarter and down from $7.2 billion in the third quarter of 2016. The airlines reported a pre-tax operating profit, as a group, for a twenty-sixth consecutive quarter, the agency said

Total operating expenses for passenger airlines in the third-quarter of 2017 came to $39.3 billion, with fuel costs accounting for $6.8 billion, or 17.3 percent, and labor costs accounting for $13.6 billion, or 34.6 percent.

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