Leading Canadian carriers have decided to emulate U.S. airlines over the implementation of new checked baggage fee on domestic routes. Canada’s national carrier Air Canada recently announced the implementation of a new $25 checked baggage fee on domestic routes. The airline’s announcement came only after three days when WestJet Airlines, its main Canadian rival, said that it would be adopting similar practice hitherto adopted earlier by U.S. carriers on imposing domestic checked baggage fee.

Air Canada indicated that the additional checked baggage fee which will now be a part of its cheapest Tango fares will be in tune with the prevailing North American commercial aviation industry practices.

Air Canada and WestJet Airlines have said that the additional checked baggage fee would be affecting about 20 percent of their domestic passengers only, particularly those who buy the cheapest airfares.

Media reports quoted travel experts as saying that Canada has been fashionably late to the baggage fee party. The experts also said that it remains to be seen for how long such a practice would be followed by the two airlines.

Travel experts have also predicted that the recent move by Air Canada to impose additional checked baggage fee would significantly boost its annual revenue by $55 million and 20 per cent share of income.

The reports said that the aviation industry’s growing demand for baggage fees have been typically addressed by North American airlines in their own different ways and also by those across the Atlantic. So far, the additional baggage fee is not being charged by major European carriers on shorter routes, but the fares are in fact segmented in a way that factors in baggage.