How Southwest airlines makes so much money from fees — even checked bag fees
Skift Take
Bag fees are not against Southwest's religion and, with the acquisition of checked-bag-fee charging AirTran, management is undoubtedly mulling whether to see the green light.
Southwest Airlines famously doesn't charge for first and second checked bags, but last year the carrier became the fifth largest ancillary revenue collector among the 50 airlines around the world that disclose those numbers.
An IdeaWorks-Amadeus ancillary revenue study put Southwest among the top 10 airlines in total ancillary revenue for the first time in 2011, at number five, with $1.18 billion in such revenue.
That's not a well-known story among passengers.
Chalk up Southwest's status -- one that the airline
