Delta's $952 Million In Baggage Fees Is More Than United And Continental Combined

(zonaphoto)

The Department of Transportation released its final numbers for airline baggage fee revenue from 2010 and Delta has sent a very loud message to the rest of the industry: Y’all got a lot of catching up to do.

According to the DOT, Delta took in $952 million in baggage fee revenue in 2010, just shy of double its 2009 take of $481 million. And the rest of the airline industry, while continuing to increase its baggage fee revenue, has not kept pace.

Delta’s revenue alone accounted for 28% of the nearly $3.4 billion brought in by the 20 airlines in the DOT’s study. American and U.S. Airways still placed second and third, respectively, but their $580 million and $513 million were completely overshadowed by Delta’s accomplishment.

A decent chunk of Delta’s increase can be attributed to its now-completed merger with Northwest (ranked #4 in 2009), but its total still dwarfs the combined $654 million of United and Continental.

Overall, baggage fee revenue was up about 24.4 percent from 2009.

See the complete list here.