An era of anti-consumer practices by airlines may be about to end, writes Paul Cullen
One of the ironies of the boom in cheap travel is that it has been accompanied by a growth in consumer rip-offs.
Budget airlines fuelled their phenomenal growth in recent decades by cutting costs to the bone.
This has been good news for millions of air travellers, but the temptation for some airlines to recover these costs by trampling over the rights of consumers has been too great to resist.
As many air travellers can testify, a journey through the Aer Lingus or Ryanair website is like an obstacle course filled with pitfalls such as hidden charges, additional fees and complex rules.
Refund requests are barely entertained, assistance is hard to find and complaints are difficult to file.
The final price of the ticket bears no resemblance to the "bargain" fare displayed on the home page.
This situation may be about to change, with the EU Commission and consumer authorities in Ireland, the UK and many other European countries bearing down on the airlines.
Up to now the industry could rely on consumer confusion and inertia and a lack of co-ordination between regulators in different EU member states, but not for much longer.
The EU's consumer affairs division has just completed a "sweep" of 450 airline websites in 15 member states, and the results are due to be published before Christmas.
Initial indications are that half the websites surveyed are regarded as "suspicious" in relation to consumer protection issues, according to a commission spokeswoman, and legal proceedings are likely.
Ireland did not participate in the sweep because of an administrative mix-up, but the National Consumer Agency (NCA) has been doing its own analysis of the websites operated by Ryanair, Aer Lingus and Aer Arann.
Backed by powerful new consumer legislation, the NCA is eager to make an impression in its first year of existence. However, it did not have to look far to find problems with the practices followed by the airlines. Officials believe they have identified a range of anti-consumer practices which will need rectifying.
It is a similar story in other EU states. Last February the UK's Office of Fair Trading forced 11 airlines to change their websites so the prices quoted include fixed, non-optional charges.
Two airlines - Aer Lingus and Ryanair - dragged their heels, citing technical reasons why they could not yet comply.
The Norwegian consumer ombudsman fined Ryanair €62,500 last year for continuing to charge passengers when refunding taxes and fees for unused tickets. Ryanair appealed, lost in the county court and is now taking its case to the high court.
In Sweden, the consumer complaints board decided in favour of 35 separate cases taken against Ryanair by travellers seeking compensation for cancelled flights. The airline has refused to follow the board's recommendation in 22 of the 35 cases. The Swedish consumer ombudsman is now taking a test case against the airline in the civil courts.
An era of anti-consumer practices by airlines appears to be drawing to a close; the only worry is that the era of cheap travel is, equally, coming to an end.