EU targets air fares

The European Commission has launched plans to clamp down on airlines offering attractive fares without pointing out the extra charges.

Low cost airlines have been in intense competition with each other in recent years and this has led to a number of carriers offering extremely cheap flights, but will then add in taxes and other charges to hike up the final price that travellers have to pay.

However, the commission is now looking to stamp out this practice and claims that this approach is wrong because it does not allow customers to accurately compare prices between different carriers.

Therefore, the commission has launched new proposals which are designed to ban this approach and will seek to ensure airlines always publish the full cost of each ticket in the future.

It is hoped that the move will provide more transparency to travellers by enabling them to compare prices more accurately as well as reduce confusion over the various prices being quoted for one trip by the same airline, with the advertised price often increasing substantially by the time the journey takes place.