Airlines Face More Skycap Lawsuits

BOSTON, April 25 -- After a jury award of more than $325,000 to nine skycaps, three more lawsuits have been filed against United Airlines, US Airways and American Airlines by porters who say they lost tips when the carriers began charging passengers a $2 fee for checking bags at the curb.

The lawsuits, filed in federal court in Boston over the past two weeks, are similar to a suit by American Airlines skycaps who won their case against the airline. On April 7, a jury awarded them $2 for every bag they had checked since the baggage fee was put in place in 2005, for total damages of more than $325,000.

Boston lawyer Shannon Liss-Riordan, who filed all the suits, said she will seek to have the complaints certified as class-action suits on behalf of thousands of skycaps.

Many airlines began imposing a $2 per-bag fee for curbside check-in following a steep decline in airline travel after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Skycaps say their tips have fallen dramatically because many passengers do not realize that the fee goes to the airline and its vendors, and is not a tip.

The lawsuits seek to put an end to the $2 fee and also ask for reimbursement of all the tips lost by the skycaps since the baggage fee began.

Tim Smith, a spokesman for American, would not comment on the new lawsuit against the carrier, but he said it was weighing its options in the earlier case, including a possible appeal.

Morgan Durrant, a spokesman for US Airways, declined to comment, but said that the skycaps listed in the lawsuit against the firm are not employees of US Airways.

Most of the skycaps in the suits do not work for the airlines but are employed by contractors that provide the curbside check-in service.

A representative said United Airlines has not received a copy of the lawsuit.