Despite the pressure to reduce expenses for travelers by air, airlines continue to add more charges, even for unavoidable items. Amadeus, the travel technology provider, suggests that the costs could rise even further.
When people see advertised flight costs on the Internet or on television, only few now believe that this is the final price they are paying. Only having gone through the electronic checkout, they are likely to see what the real price of their trip is. Airlines continue to add surcharges for baggage, infants and priority bookings despite the pressure to reduce them.
According to Amadeus, airlines made about £16.2 billion in the first 10 months of this year on charges aside from the standard prizes for the tickets. The culprits are not only budget airlines, but include BA and other traditional giants of the sky too. There is no law in the UK to instruct airlines to add the unavoidable charges such as taxes and credit card fees to the original fare, thus giving them the possibility to trick customers as much as they want. On a moral note, such fees should be included in the fare, but this does not mean at all that they will be.
For example easyJet has increased its booking fee by one pound and has upped its infant fees from £15 to £20 thus forcing families to pay more to travel. Another example of charges rise is Ryanair. The airline has increased its baggage charges and one could end up paying as much as £ 70 when booking a bag over the phone.
