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ATLANTA — Five major U.S. airlines are committing to actually not charging a fee for something: the sacred carry-on bag.

The announcement Sunday comes despite the fact that some of those same airlines are expected to report first-quarter losses next week amid higher fuel prices and the beating they took from the February snowstorms. Add-on fees for things such as checked bags, pillows and food are a key revenue stream for them.

For 26 large U.S. airlines, so-called ancillary fee revenue accounted for 6.9 percent of their total operating revenue in the third quarter of 2009, up from 4.1 percent a year earlier, the most recently available government data shows.

But major carriers risk alienating customers if they follow Spirit Airlines’ lead and impose a fee on carry-on bags. The small Florida airline will begin in August charging customers up to $45 to place a bag in an overhead bin.

Other fees haven’t stopped people from flying, but many of those fees can be avoided. It would be hard for many travelers to avoid a carry-on bag fee.

"We believe it is something that’s important to our customers and they value, and we will continue making that available to them at no charge," American Airlines spokesman Roger Frizzell said.

New York Sen. Charles Schumer said Sunday that American, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, US Airways and JetBlue Airways each had committed to him that they would not institute fees for carry-on bags. He said he was hopeful other carriers would follow suit. Notably absent from the list was Continental Airlines, which is said to be in merger talks with United.

It wasn’t immediately clear how long the airlines had pledged not to charge for carry-ons. Frizzell couldn’t say, and a spokesman for Delta declined to comment.

Schumer said he planned to meet with Spirit Airlines leadership in the coming week.

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