Abta board member Noel Josephides has called for bank card fees to be included in the basic price of flights after easyJet raised its debit-card charge to £8 last week, more than double the rate six months ago.
However, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) confirmed easyJet and its budget rivals were acting in line with regulations despite charging card fees described as “excessive” by Which?. It revealed that it costs retailers 20p to process debit card payments.
The consumer body submitted a complaint about the fees to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) on March 30, citing Ryanair as among “the worst offenders”.
Josephides, managing director of Sunvil Holidays, said: “The industry has such a bad name due to lack of transparency, and the no-frills carriers do not help.” Anthony Goord of Peter Goord Travel agreed, saying: “All charges should be included in the basic price.”
EasyJet blamed “significant cost increases”, but confirmed the £8 fee would go to the airline, not debit-card providers, to pay for “administration of the call centre, development and maintenance of the website, and marketing and acquisition costs”.
The carrier charges no fee on Visa Electron cards, enabling it to claim the fees are optional. However, fewer than 8% of UK consumers hold such a card and most banks do not handle them.
A CAA spokeswoman said: “The easyJet fee is transparent through the booking process. We are trying to stop the addition of charges at the last minute.”
The OFT confirmed it is considering whether the charges are transparent and proportionate to “the cost incurred by the business for processing the payment”.
It is due to issue a ruling before the end of June.
The CAA said Ryanair had promised to display “the full price up front” of fares by June 1.