New airline rules will end misleading flight prices

12.05.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 12th Jul 2007

London's Liberal Democrat MEP Baroness Sarah Ludford has welcomed new legislation approved by the European Parliament that will make airline ticket pricing more transparent.

Despite previous EU legislation, the UK Consumer Protection Act and warnings from the Office of Fair Trading, many airlines continue to advertise misleading prices which do not reflect the real cost of the ticket once taxes and supplements have been included.

Commenting, Baroness Ludford said:

"The new tougher European rules will oblige airlines to provide inclusive prices so that customers are aware of the cost of the ticket from the very start of the booking procedure."

"This will end the current sharp practice whereby when booking online, customers are obliged to click through many pages before discovering the true cost of the ticket, which can often be double or triple the advertised price."

"These proposals are good for the consumer and the industry as a whole and should remove a misleading but widespread practice of separating charges from the initially advertised price."