OFT threatens legal action over misleading air fares
June 16, 2007
"If we don't get change by negotiation, we'll start court proceedings."
...so said Office of Fair Trading spokesman Ray Hall on BBC News 24 this morning (watch the clip).
As you'll recall, back in February the OFT gave airlines three months to start incorporating non-optional extras such as air passenger duty and fuel surcharge in their headline prices.
It announced today that 'a minority' of them still have not done so, although it stopped short of naming names.
Well, it hardly needs to. A quick trawl of the web will suffice, and the BBC quickly 'found' (though none of them were hiding it) that budget carriers Ryanair, EasyJet, Fly Thomas Cook and Jet2 were among the offenders, though all four say they are in the process of making changes.
It is not hard to see why they might want to drag their feet. Diminish a low-cost's ability to slap did-I-just-see-that fares on the nearest flat surface and you take away its most effective way of luring punters.
So will these warning shots from the OFT tip the balance? Or will it be forced to take the tough action predicted by Abta two weeks ago?
Nathan Midgley
