Flying low

13 November 2007 By William Echikson

The EU is targeting lowcost airlines led by Ryanair for deceptive advertising. Europe s lowcost leader should clean up its act. Brusselsforced air deregulation allowed Ryanair to get off the ground and the Irish upstart has more to gain by working with Eurocrats rather than demonizing them.

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European airlines are misleading consumers on their websites, the European Commission will say in a report scheduled to be published on Wednesday.

At least 200 airline websites fail to show taxes and charges, trap flyers into buying unwanted items such as insurance, and fail to give information about cancellation and date changes, the report says.

No airlines are named. But the Commission will publish a list of guilty carriers in four months time and Commission officials say in private that Ryanair is one of the leading offenders. If airlines do not change their web sites, the Commission could fine them or order their web sites closed.

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