Mexico City, Mexico — One of Mexico’s airlines has been fined 25 million peso for collecting additional fees for passenger hand baggage. Ricardo Sheffield Padilla, head of Profeco says Aeroenlaces Nacionales, S.A. de C.V., which is better known as VivaAerobús, has paid the fine.
On Tuesday, the head of the Federal Consumer Attorney’s Office (Profeco) explained that the airline was fined for charging passengers for the carry on baggage of less than 10 kilos.
Sheffield says that other airlines such Aeroméxico and Volaris are complying with not charging passengers for cabin hand luggage under the 10 kilo limit.
He says that with the arrival of one of the busiest holiday seasons in the country, the Procuraduría Federal del Consumidor (Profeco) is continually monitoring airline websites for misleading advertising and charging for carry on baggage that is less than the allowed 10 kilos.
However, Sheffield says VivaAerobús has not made the necessary changes to their website pages.
“Modifications were made on the very pages of these other airlines,” he said adding that “VivaAerobús continues with the same idea. Until now, they have paid and have paid, more than 25 million peso in fines, and well, as long as they don’t want to change, the tally will continue to run,” Sheffield said in his announcement of the company’s fine.
Sheffield said that travelers want to take advantage of cheap fares and consequently, carry small suitcases, “especially with VivaAerobús, but we do not want them to continue accumulating fines. What we want is for them to respect the law.”
Their practice of charging for the small carry on baggage was made public by Profeco in December of 2021, when they published a consumer alert regarding the “risk of establishing commercial relations” with VivaAerobús.
“The alert against VivaAerobús was imposed since it is considered to constitute a practice that harms the interests and rights of the consumer population and, therefore, affects the economy of a community,” he added.
“Profeco complies with the commitment to promote and protect consumer rights, as well as apply the necessary measures to promote equity and legal security in relationships between suppliers and consumers,” he said.
