Gilbertson

Overweight and oversize bags will cost $75, up from $50 now. Most major airlines charge $90 and up each way for such bags. An overweight bag is one that weighs more than 50 pounds.

Southwest customers still can check two bags for free, but the price for additional bags will be $75 each, up from $50.

Passengers checking bikes, surfboards, kayaks and select other sporting equipment will now pay $75 each way, up from $50.

The new fees are a noshow fee for travelers who don’t take a flight and don’t cancel their reservation and a premium priority-boarding option.

The no-show fee, which will apply to those who buy the airline’s cheapest fares, is designed to enable Southwest to resell more seats by encouraging passengers to cancel tickets they don’t intend to use, executives said.

Southwest is alone among major airlines in not charging a fee to change a ticket, including unused tickets. Most airlines charge $150 plus any fare difference. Southwest gives passengers a credit for the amount of their ticket to use for another flight. The new fee will be deducted from that credit.

The premium boarding option, which is being tested in San Diego, will enable Southwest to sell unused positions at the front of the boarding line to passengers who want to be among the first on the plane. Boarding positions A1-15 are reserved for passengers who buy the highest fare, Business Select, but some flights don’t have 15 Business Select passengers.

The amount of those fees has yet to be determined. Both will be introduced in 2013, Southwest said.

The airline told Wall Street analysts that it expects the new fees and fee increases to boost revenue by $100 million in 2013.

Airlines bagged $1.6 bil in fees over summer

U.S. airlines collected nearly $1.6 billion in bag fees and reservation-change fees in the third quarter, up 5 percent from a year earlier, according to figures released last week by the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Bag fees, which include charges for checked bags and overweight and oversize bags, totaled $924 million, up 2.8 percent from the JulySeptember period in 2011. Reservation-change fees, which most major airlines charge to change a flight or rebook a ticket that wasn’t used, rose about 8 percent to $652 million.

Delta, United, American and US Airways had the most fee revenue. Southwest Airlines, the nation’s largest carrier by domestic passengers, ranks No. 5 in baggage fees and No. 6 in reservationchange fees because of its acquisition of AirTran Airways. Southwest doesn’t charge passengers for up to two checked bags and has no reservation-change fee. AirTran has both fees.

Southwest has said AirTran’s baggage and change fees will go away as it integrates the two airlines, but the airline isn’t shying away from those fees yet. It is increasing AirTran’s checkedbag fees beginning in February. The first checked bag will cost $25 each way, up from $20. A second bag will cost $35, up from $25.

The airlines with the biggest fee increases in the third quarter were deep discounters Allegiant Air and Spirit Airlines. Allegiant’s bag-fee revenue nearly doubled, to $25.8 million. Spirit’s bag-fee revenue jumped 18 percent to $43.5 million.

The rapidly growing airlines, which serve PhoenixMesa Gateway Airport, are known for ultralow fares and a pile of add-on fees. They are the only U.S. airlines to charge for carry-on bags.

Spirit introduced its carryon fee in 2010 and in November increased it and other fees significantly. The tab for a carry-on bag at the gate is $100 each way. The airline said it wants to encourage travelers to pay carry-on fees in advance so last-minute bag checks don’t hold up passenger boarding.

Allegiant started charging for carry-on bags this year. On both airlines, carry-on fees apply to bags that don’t fit underneath the seat.

For the first nine months of the year, baggage fees and ticket-change fees totaled $4.6 billion, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, compared with $4.4 billion in the first three quarters of 2011.