The goal of the project (which started on September 2008 and ended at the beginning of November 2009), was to determine what types of fees are charged in the air industry (taxes, extra fees or other fees with various names), whether consumers are clearly informed about these fees and whether consumers are misled or not.   

Each participating state gathered and evaluated data obtained from selected national transportation companies and largest airports. A total amount of data, received from 281 flights, 24 airlines and 34 main European airports have been collected. In the Czech Republic, data were collected from České aerolinie, a.s., from Travel Service, a.s. and from Prague, Ruzyň airport, managed by Letiště Praha, a.s. company. All mentioned businesses cooperated with the Czech Trade Inspection Authority and provided required information.

Based on all collected information provided by participating states, a closing report has been produced, which includes (besides other issues) the following:

- Airlines in EU/EHP charge various additional fees on the top of the airfare, which are not very specific and most of time differ a lot.

- Airlines often do not specify sufficiently what the additional fee is for

- The name of extra fees sometimes creates an impression that the fee is a "mandatory state" fee or "mandatory airport fee", whereas (at least part of the fee) is a profit of the airline

- From the information available to the consumer, he may not be able to determine which fees may be returned to him if he cancels the ticket and what fees may not be returned to him.

The report also contains many recommendations, which should help to establish transparency in the fee-charging policies and should help the consumer to navigate through the different number of fees. For example:

- The total price of the airfare shall be specified and divided into (i) the "basic price" charged by the airlines, (ii) fees that the airlines must pay to the airport and (iii), taxes and fees the airline has to pay to the state.

- Fees or payments that must always be paid by the consumer could be included in the "basic price", and should not be charged separately and "disguised as various service fees".

The report also includes recommendations how to modify the European legislature specifying air transport regulations or rather how to make it simpler.

The Czech Trade Inspection Authority will use its findings obtained from this project in order to start (on October 1, 2010) supervising, whether regulations included in article No. 23, directive ES No. 1008/2008 describing mutual air service regulations in the Union (amendment of Rule No. 634/1992 Coll., the Consumer protection law, done by the application of Rule No. 301/2009 Coll.) are observed.

Link to the press report of Norweigian consumer ombudsman (in English)  may be found HERE

http://www.forbrukerombudet.no/index.gan?id=11040134&subid=0

Appendix includes: Text of the closing report in English

Appendixes

• Final Report (3.3 Mb)