Friday, 9 December 2005

Nanny strikes again

The taxpayer-funded Air Transport Users Council wants to "correct" what it sees as a market failure:
AIRLINES are being urged to show all-inclusive fares on their websites, following concern that passengers booking online may be paying more than they intended.

The official passenger watchdog wants carriers to follow British Airways' example in showing inclusive fares, rather than listing add-on taxes, fees and charges separately.

Is there really a problem here? Not that I can see, and as is so often the case Mr O'Leary's airline gives a suitably robust response:
Ryanair, which sells 98 per cent of its seats online, said showing its fares separately from add-ons enabled passengers to see which charges were imposed by airports, governments and the airline.
Why doesn't the ATUC tell British London Airways to change its website and let us see the full extent of taxation imposed on the traveller? And a comparison of airport charges might lead us to ask why the BAA airports were privatised as a non-competitive block rather than separately. At least the Ryanair and easyJet websites work properly, unlike some. Come to think of it, wouldn't it be a good idea for all prices to be shown before and after taxes?
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1 comment:

David Farrer said...

Comments made on previous template:

Michael Stone
The same is true here in the states. Sales tax is not included in the advertised price for goods. So, when one pays, one must add 6-7% onto the advertised price. 
 
The one item where the tax is included in the advertised price is gasoline. Because this is hidden, it is easier for the feds to increase. It's now at 15% on average.

15 December 2005, 22:31:16 GMT
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APL
NC: "...who put up their petrol price in big letters with "+VAT" in letters visible only from the garage forecourt." 
 
Not sure why you object to that practice. After all, it isn't the garage that is charging the vat, is it? 
 
Forcing vendors to conceal the excise duty and VAT due on the sale [of petrol], allows Gordon Brown to dishonestly berate the oil companies for charging too much for petrol.

10 December 2005, 22:41:48 GMT
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Neil Craig
It shouldn't be a problem online because the full price will be shown before the final click. 
 
There was a garage who put up their petrol price in big letters with "+VAT" in letters visible only from the garage forecourt. They were correctly jumped on.  
 
I would really like to see Ryanair/Easy/anybody getting to take over the Highlands & Islands Airports franchise with the current subsudy. At present we subsidise 2/3rds of the cost (I think rightly) & it still costs £20 per person to land. If a franchisor could cut costs by 1/3rd the H&I could start costing less than the taxi fair to the airport which would change the areas's economy no end.

10 December 2005, 16:25:53 GMT

3:52 pm, October 28, 2012

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