The right to a decent carry-on bag

Airports in summer are a tale of two travelers: the seasoned business people, who have their trip down to a science, and the occasional vacationers, who do not. Aviation reporter Kate Duffy writes today about protecting those in the latter group against fees charged by budget airlines for bags that exceed their rules. Plus: Scottish wind farms overcome Nimbyism, and the European Union strikes a deal with Trump.

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Just about everyone who flies low-cost airlines knows the drill: You line up at the gate with your ticket and ID in one hand and your carry-on in the other. The desk clerk scrutinizes your documents, then eyeballs your luggage. If you're lucky, you're cleared for boarding. But not infrequently, you're yanked from the line and ordered to cram your suitcase or backpack into a metal bag-sizer while your fellow passengers look on, thanking the heavens they're not in your shoes. If the bag doesn't fit, you'll cough up a sum that can often exceed what you paid for your ticket.

From Frontier Airlines and Spirit Airlines in the US to Ireland's Ryanair and EasyJet in the UK, budget carriers are notorious for making money from bulky baggage. Most of them allow for one very small bag—about the size of a largish laptop case—in the base ticket price, but they impose big penalties if you go over without paying in advance for more substantial luggage. Frontier whacks passengers with a $100 fine for an oversize bag, EasyJet charges £48 ($65), and Ryanair bills you about £70. Analysts say such fees increasingly pad the bottom line at low-cost carriers.

Ryanair bag sizers at Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport. Photographer: Nicolas Economou/Getty Images

European politicians, bristling at the charges, are amping up the battle over baggage allowances. Members of the European Parliament have proposed that at least two cabin bags be free. The measure would offer "a fundamental right to avoid unjustified extra costs," says Matteo Ricci, a legislator from Italy. Airlines, predictably enough, think that's a pretty lousy idea. "It would limit passengers' freedom of choice and ultimately oblige them to pay for services they may not want or need," Airlines for Europe, a trade group, said in a statement.

In an effort to derail the legislation, or at least soften their image, European airlines have agreed to standardize the dimensions for free underseat bags. And Ryanair on July 2 bumped up the thickness of allowed bags by 2 inches.

At the same time, at least two carriers are rewarding their gate staff for sniffing out too-large luggage. Ryanair says it pays a commission to personnel who catch passengers with bulky cases in an effort to "eliminate the scourge of oversized bags, which delay boarding." And Swissport employees working at some UK airports get a £1 bounty for every EasyJet passenger they stop with an oversize bag, according to an internal email seen by the Sunday Times.

Jane Keery and her partner took an EasyJet flight last month from London to the Portuguese resort town Faro, and both were hit with the oversize luggage fee. She acknowledges that her suitcase didn't fit in the metal bag sizer, but she insists it could easily have been stowed beneath the seat. Worse, she says, five friends she was traveling with had the exact same bag but weren't charged. "A month later," she says, "I'm still livid." —With Elliot Burrin

In Brief

While it's traditionally the busiest season in real estate, this spring was the slowest for the US in more than a dozen years.
Thai and Cambodian leaders agreed to an unconditional ceasefire to end their deadliest border conflict in over a decade, after a push by the US and regional powers for a diplomatic resolution.
Samsung will produce AI semiconductors for Tesla in a $16.5 billion deal that marks a win for its underperforming foundry division.

Scotland's Wind Farms Are Coming Online

The Isle of Lewis near a potential wind farm site. Photographer: Robert Ormerod for Bloomberg Businessweek

Almost monthly for the past 15 years, Darren Cuming has trekked to Lewis, an island that arcs out into the Atlantic northwest of Scotland like a lopsided diamond. Although it's the third-largest of the British Isles, Lewis is sparsely populated—just 20,000 people—and faces economic challenges that have encouraged centuries of emigration. "The issue is keeping people on the island, having good, worthwhile jobs," Cuming says, pointing out shuttered storefronts like they're local landmarks while he pilots his Kia sedan through the main town, Stornoway.

Cuming is one of a growing legion of energy executives hoping to stem the outflow—and stoke profits—by harvesting a resource Lewis has in abundance: wind. The island is buffeted by gusts that average more than 20 mph (roughly double that of the "windy city," Chicago), and its consistency makes turbines here about twice as productive as the UK average.

He oversees Lewis Wind Power, a joint venture between Irish utility ESB and his employer, EDF Renewables. The subsidiary of the French energy giant has plowed £20 million ($27 million) into the Stornoway Wind Farm, a project first proposed in 2001 that has undergone multiple changes in ownership. The investment is finally poised to pay off as the island's leaders dismantle the barriers that have kept the rich resource from being fully tapped in many places across Britain.

Wind projects on the island that had been stalled for decades are finally approaching completion, thanks to the perseverance of local leaders. Read more from Willem Marx here: Scottish Wind Farms Show How to Counter Nimby Opposition

The EU Strikes a Deal With Trump

Trump took a break from golfing to meet with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Scotland. Photographer: Andy Buchanan/AFP

European capitals defended the trade deal struck with President Donald Trump, which will see the European Union accept a 15% tariff on most of its exports to the US while reducing levies on some American products to zero.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who met with Trump in his golf club in Turnberry, Scotland, on Sunday, hailed the agreement for the stability and predictability it will offer businesses and consumers. The EU knew that the deal would favor the US, but von der Leyen urged reporters to "not forget where we came from," referencing tariff rates Trump threatened that were as high as 50%.

The lower rate came as a relief to member states that are dependent on exports, especially Germany, which exported $34.9 billion of new cars and auto parts to the US in 2024.

"The agreement has succeeded in averting a trade conflict that would have hit the export-oriented German economy hard," German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in a statement late Sunday. "This has enabled us to safeguard our core interests, even if I would have liked to have seen further easing in transatlantic trade."

Yet no one in Europe is calling the deal a win. Read more from Bloomberg News' Richard Bravo here: EU Defends Trade Deal in Face of Mounting Business Criticism

Birth Rates

$502

That's how much the Chinese government will give families annually for each child under the age of 3 in a new child-care subsidy, its latest push to boost birthrates after a worrying drop in recent years. The measure follows China's population shrinking for a third straight year in 2024.

Trade Barrier

"I'm not so interested in talking anymore. He talks. We have such nice conversations, such respectful and nice conversations, and then people die the following night in a—with a missile going into a town."

Donald Trump

US president

Speaking to reporters on July 28 on his trip to Scotland, Trump said he is cutting the timeline for Russian leader Vladimir Putin to reach a truce with Ukraine or face potential economic penalties. Read the full story here.