A recent BBC article highlighted a situation in which the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) warned EasyJet over advertising cabin baggage “from £5.99,” noting that customers often struggle to actually find this lowest price.
NB: This is an article from Aggregate Intelligence, one of our Expert Partners
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and stay up to date
But as Kris Glabinski, Vice President of Strategy at Aggregate Intelligence, explains, the story misses the wider reality: this isn’t misleading pricing, it’s textbook airline revenue management.
Using Aggregate Intelligence’s ancillary data of more than 65 low-cost-carrier (LCC) price observations, Kris identifies that price multipliers of this scale are not only common, but structurally necessary in modern airline pricing models.
What the Data Actually Shows
According to Kris’s analysis:
- Cabin bags: typically vary 1.3x to 2.1x (£11–£34)
- Seat selection: can vary up to 22x (£1–£22)
- Checked baggage (LCCs): averages a 3.2x variation
- Checked baggage (premium carriers): ranges from 20x to 33x
Against that backdrop, EasyJet’s 5x spread (£5.99 → ~£30) is “actually conservative,” Kris says.
In other words: the £5.99 fare does exist and compared with market benchmarks, it sits well within industry norms.
Why “From £5.99” Really Means Exactly That
The issue isn’t accuracy; it’s misunderstanding. As Kris points out, airline pricing is shaped by a dynamic interplay of:
- Real-time pricing algorithms that adjust fares based on 50+ variables
- Inventory management, where only a portion of seats/bag slots are allocated to the lowest band
- Time-to-departure curves, where prices naturally rise as flights approach
- Demand forecasting, which pushes prices higher on busy routes or peak dates
These mechanisms make genuinely low prices possible, but only for travellers who book at the right time, on the right route, when lower-priced inventory is still available.
Without dynamic pricing, the £5.99 option simply wouldn’t exist.
A Standard Industry Mechanism… Not Misleading Advertising
Kris summarises it clearly: “This is Revenue Management 101.” Dynamic pricing enables airlines to match supply and demand efficiently while still offering ultra-low entry-point prices to price-sensitive customers. Calling it misleading ignores how aviation economics work.
If anything, EasyJet’s pricing model is less aggressive than many competitors.
If you’d like to dive deeper into airline ancillary strategies, visit our data library to purchase in-depth reports on any airline’s ancillary offerings.
