Airline baggage fees soar

MONTREAL — It now costs more for passengers to check their bags for Air Canada and WestJet flights.

The airlines are raising the fee for the first checked bag by five-dollars to 30-dollars and by 20-dollars for the second bag to 50-dollars.

Air Canada and WestJet say the increases follow similar fee bumps by major U-S airline JetBlue Airways as well as rising fuel prices and other costs.

For years, the airlines checked the first bag for free, but that policy largely ended across the industry by 2014.