According to market research carried out by sites such as travelsupermarket, the cost of taking a ski bag on a flight has gone up by as much as £15 per set, compared to charges made last year.
The top ten airlines were surveyed and out of those ten, five had upped their charges for carrying skis and another two had changed their policies regarding the acceptance of skis or snowboards on flights.
The most expensive airline was Ryan Air charging travellers a massive £40 per ski bag or board bag each way, although this is actually the same price as they were charging last year.
Thomson have now changed their policy and charging structure so that instead of being £25 return per bag, they now charge £20 each way, giving a total increase of £15 per ski bag per holiday.
EasyJet is not far behind with an overall increase of £13.
Jet2 have increased their ski carriage price by £10, Flybe by £4 and Monarch by a pound.
British Airways have hidden the charge increase by allowing one free bag of up to 23kg per passenger and changing their policy so that this bag can now include ski and snowboard bags.
So if you can cram all your other ski gear and general wear into the one ski or snowboard bag and still come under the 23kg weight limit (good luck) then there will be no additional charge for taking ski equipment.
However, if you can't pack that light, then an extra bag will set you back £30 for a European flight or £77 long haul.
A similar policy is offered by Air Canada and Are Lingus.
The only airlines that currently do not charge you extra for taking a ski or snowboard bag are Swiss Air and Virgin Atlantic.
Some of the airlines are trying to entice passengers by offering free ski equipment carriage if you book your flights early or on less common routes - for example if you fly to Basel on the Swiss-German-French border with BMI you will get one free ski equipment bag, which can be either skis or a snowboard or a boot bag.
Thomas Cook will allow one set of skis or a snowboard free so long as not over 10kg in weight on flights to Canada, but go over that and you'll be charged a whopping £15 per kilo extra! It is important that anyone looking to take their ski equipment on a flight reads the small print.
Some airlines have policies that may mean you cannot take your skis or snowboard, even if you have paid for the extra carriage, such as FlyBe that only take skis on a standby basis i.
e.
if there is room, so check-in early! You can usually save some money by pre-booking ski carriage online.
If you have booked your flights for your ski holiday to France and need an airport transfer to Courchevel there are plenty of small friendly companies that offer competitive rates and don't charge extra for ski carriage!