EU asked to ban airline add-on fees
Airlines could be banned by the European Commission from charging passengers extra to check-in online, carry luggage and pay by credit card.
The commission’s vice-president and transport chief Siim Kallas has been asked to prevent airlines from slapping customers with additional fees since Ryanair introduced its latest cheeky charge – a $2 per passenger fee to cover ash cloud compensation.
Ryanair paid out £88m to passengers left stranded during the ash cloud crisis, but according to a report in The Mirror it will earn £150m from the fee.
The paper says Labour Euro MP and chairman of the EU transport committee Brian Simpson has written to Kallas, who is leading a review of air passenger rights, asking for additional charges like these to be banned.
Simpson is calling for a "one flight, one price" approach so that passengers pay the advertised fare and no more. He wants airlines to be blocked from adding additional charges on top of the headline price.
Ryanair claimed its new fee for passenger compensation is included in all its advertised fares.
By Linsey McNeill
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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