Renting skis in the Alps or flying with your own: the real sum

The airline half of this sum is knowable to the euro before you book, and it varies more than the rental half does. Carrying your own skis costs nothing on several European network carriers and up to EUR 80 per person each way on others, which is the difference between a free family trip and EUR 640 of baggage fees for four. Work out your airline number first, then compare it with the hire quote, because only one of those two figures is fixed.

What the airlines actually charge

All figures below are published online prices per item per one way flight, read from the airline pages on 16 September 2026. Return means two of them.

Free, or free in addition to your allowance, on the right fare: Edelweiss carries the first set of winter sports equipment at CHF 0 on all flights and in all booking classes. SWISS and Lufthansa publish EUR 0 and CHF 0 for European and intercontinental carriage. Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Air Dolomiti carry one set free in addition to the allowance. KLM carries a ski set instead of one checked bag rather than on top of it.

Every one of those free carriers publishes conditions. Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines exclude Economy Light and Economy Basic fares on short and medium haul. Lufthansa also excludes routes to or from the USA, Mexico and Central America; Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines exclude routes to, from or via the same countries. SWISS excludes the same fare tiers and drops the free carriage on US routes unless the flight is LX-operated and LX-numbered. Air Dolomiti, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines all publish EUR 80 within Europe as the charge when the set is not free. KLM’s set becomes a paid bag on Light and Basic tickets. Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Edelweiss and SWISS require advance registration, and Lufthansa says that applies to the free skis too.

Paid, per item each way:

Airline	Online	At the airport
Eurowings	from EUR 30, GBP 26 or CHF 28	surcharge possible, not published
Aer Lingus	EUR 40 or GBP 40	EUR 50 or GBP 40
Norwegian	EUR 40 to 45	EUR 50
Transavia	from EUR 42	from EUR 45
easyJet	GBP 45 (small sports equipment)	GBP 52
Ryanair	EUR or GBP 45	EUR or GBP 50
Vueling	EUR 45 to 65	EUR 55 to 75
Wizz Air	EUR 55 to 65	EUR 65
TUI Airways	from GBP 60 or EUR 69 per set	not published
Luxair	EUR 80 per bag per way	not published
Condor	from USD 55 in Zone 1, which includes Austria, Switzerland and Italy	USD 145

Two carriers publish no number. Jet2 quotes ski carriage inside the booking flow, and British Airways treats skis as a checked bag without publishing the fee on its sports equipment page.

One person, one week, return

Take the online price and double it. Eurowings comes out at GBP 52 or EUR 60. Aer Lingus at GBP 80. Ryanair and easyJet both at GBP 90 online, rising to GBP 100 and GBP 104 respectively if you leave it to the airport. Vueling lands between EUR 90 and EUR 130 depending on route. Wizz Air between EUR 110 and EUR 130. Luxair at EUR 160. On Edelweiss, and on SWISS or Lufthansa on a fare that is not Light or Basic, the same trip is zero.

Now write down the hire quote you have been given for a week, per person, and call it R. If your airline charge for the return is below R, flying with your own kit is already cheaper for that one week, before you count the fact that your own boots fit. If it is above R, your own skis only win across several trips.

A family of four

Multiply, because every airline in the database prices per passenger or per item, not per booking. Four returns on Eurowings is EUR 240. On Ryanair or easyJet booked online it is GBP 360, and GBP 416 on easyJet if the four bags are added at the airport. On Wizz Air it is EUR 440 to EUR 520. On Luxair it is EUR 640. On Edelweiss, SWISS or Lufthansa, on a qualifying fare, it is nothing at all.

TUI Airways is the one to check rather than calculate. The published figure is from GBP 60 or EUR 69 per set, but the page does not state whether that is per way or per return, so a family of four is somewhere between GBP 240 and GBP 480 and only the booking flow will say which.

Against that, four hire packages for a week is 4R. A GBP 360 baggage bill beats renting only if a week’s hire for four costs more than GBP 360, a number your hire shop can give you in a minute and one we will not invent here.

The bit the rental comparisons leave out

Skis flying free does not mean skis travelling free. Once you land, the bag still has to reach the resort, and the airport to resort options are not priced the same way. A shared coach or a scheduled bus is priced per seat and commonly limits or charges for oversized items, so a family that paid nothing to fly its skis can still meet a per bag charge on the ground. A private transfer is priced per vehicle rather than per passenger, which is one option worth pricing when you are carrying four ski bags. We publish no transfer prices here, and our about page discloses that the owner also runs a transfer marketplace, which is why this paragraph stops at the mechanism.

What to check before you fly

Whether your fare is Economy Light or Basic, since that is what turns a free ski set into a paid one on Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and KLM.
Whether the airline requires advance registration, and by when. Lufthansa asks for 72 hours, Condor for 8, Wizz Air for 3, Edelweiss for 4 days.
The airport price as well as the online price, because on Condor the gap is USD 55 to USD 145.
Your hire quote per person per week, so the comparison is against a real number rather than an average.
How the skis get from the airport to the resort, and how that leg counts bags.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which airline is cheapest to fly with skis?

The free carriers, when you qualify: Edelweiss on all flights, and SWISS, Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Air Dolomiti on fares above their light and basic tiers. Of the airlines that always charge, Eurowings publishes the lowest rate at from EUR 30, GBP 26 or CHF 28 per item each way. A cheaper ski fee on a dearer ticket is not a saving, so compare the whole fare.

Does renting always work out cheaper for one trip?

Not always, and the answer turns on your airline rather than on the hire shop. On Edelweiss, SWISS or Lufthansa on a qualifying fare your skis travel at no charge, so renting has to beat zero. On Luxair at EUR 80 each way, renting has to beat EUR 160 for the week.

Is it cheaper to pay for the ski bag at the airport?

No, on every airline in the database that publishes both prices. Ryanair goes from 45 to 50, easyJet from GBP 45 to GBP 52, Norwegian to EUR 50, Transavia to EUR 45, Wizz Air to EUR 65, and Condor from USD 55 to USD 145. Several airlines also cap how many sets travel on a given flight, so leaving it late risks the equipment not travelling at all.

What about the cost of the boots?

Boots are where the weight goes, and most airlines in our database define the ski set as including them, so carrying your own adds nothing to the airline bill on those carriers. TUI Airways is the exception, excluding boots from ski carriage and counting them against your normal baggage allowance instead.