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Airlines protest proposed rule on fee revenue disclosure

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With airline travel demand slowing, the nation’s air carriers are protesting a proposed rule that would require them to report revenue from several fees charged to passengers.

The federal government now requires airlines to report revenue from checked baggage fees and from charges to cancel or change reservations. All other fees, such as charges for food, wireless Internet access, blankets, making telephone reservations, pet transportation and unaccompanied minors, among others, are reported by airlines in a lump sum.

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The new rule proposed by the U.S. Department of Transportation would require the airlines to report 19 fee categories separately and to disclose how many bags are transported so that the agency can compare the total to the number of lost or damaged bags.

But in a letter filed last month to the Department of Transportation, an airline trade group said the rule would create a burden and inhibit the industry’s ability to grow.

‘The proposal would impose an outsize burden,’ according to the letter from the Air Transport Assn., the trade group for the nation’s largest airlines.

A report released Monday by the International Air Transport Assn. said passenger demand worldwide was up 4.5% in August, compared with the same month last year, but below the 6% growth recorded in July.

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Airlines collect $1.38 billion in baggage, reservation fees

--Hugo Martin

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