End of rip-off airline fees? Ryanair, easyJet and others fined millions | Personal Finance | Finance
Some of Europe’s biggest airlines, including Ryanair, have been hit with punishing fines totalling £150 million for imposing “abusive” fees on travellers.
The fines are linked to the tactic of driving up the cost of travel by, for example, charging people to take hand luggage into a cabin or forcing parents to pay extra to make sure their child can sit next to them. The action has been taken by the authorities in Spain, who have also taken a decision to ban the rip-off fees.
British families will now be looking to the UK authorities and government to take similar action in this country, which could protect travellers from being hit with hidden fees as they go through the booking process. The Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary immediately hit out at the fines, describing them as “illegal”, and announced plans to launch an appeal.
Currently, budget airlines promote themselves on the basis of offering what appear to be remarkably cheap headline fares. However, they then boost the cost of tickets by adding in fees for elements of the trip that cannot be afforded.
A total of five airlines have been fined in Spain by its consumer ministry. Ryanair with hit with the biggest fine of £90m (€107m)
It has ordered Vueling to pay £32m (€39m), while easyJet will have to pay £24m (€29), while Norwegian and Volotea received smaller fines of £1.3m (€1.6m) and £1.6m (€1.9m) respectively.
The consumer ministry said it is also banning some of the practices for which the airlines were penalised, including charging extra fees for carrying hand luggage on to the plane and reserving adjacent seats for children or other dependants.
Airlines will also be banned from charging “disproportionate and abusive” fees for printing boarding passes, and from making “misleading omissions” of pricing information, making it hard for consumers to compare prices, the ministry said. It also told the airlines that they must accept cash payments at Spanish airports.
The sanctions were originally imposed by Spain’s consumer affairs and gambling authorities after an investigation begun last year found “very serious” infringements of Spain’s consumer regulations.
The airlines appealed against the sanctions but the ministry said today that it has rejected their appeals.
It said this was the first time that sanctions classified as “very serious” had been imposed by Spain’s consumer affairs authorities since they were given sanctioning powers in 2022.
The airlines may well combat the rulings by raising the headline price of fares, however critics say that this would, at least, make them more honest and transparent
Ryanair said it has instructed its lawyers to immediately appeal over what it called the “unlawful and baseless” fines.
Chief executive Michael O’Leary said: “These illegal and baseless fines, [which] have been invented by Spain’s Consumer Affairs Ministry for political reasons, are clearly in breach of EU law,.”
He argued that Ryanair uses baggage and seating fees to change passengers’ behaviours, which allows the airline to keep prices low.
He complained: “These illegal Spanish fines, which are based on an ancient 1960’s law which predated Spain joining the EU, would destroy the ability of low cost airlines to pass on cost savings to consumers via lower fares.”
Javier Gandara, the head of the Spanish Association of Airlines (ALA) industry group, said all the carriers would appeal against the fine for cabin baggage charges, though not all would challenge other measures such as forcing airlines to accept cash when selling items on board.
ALA called the Spanish consumer ministry’s decision “nonsense” and said it violated free market and EU rules.
Mr Gandara said the decision would hurt the Spanish travel industry, as no other EU country prevents extra charges for large carry-on bags.
However, countries like Italy have limited some budget airline practices. In August, Ryanair lost an appeal against a ban on extra fees for seat reservations next to children under 12 or people with disabilities.
