| 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. If this email was forwarded to you, click here to sign up. 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 | 
