MEP Simon Busuttil welcomed the European Commission proposal, published Tuesday to require full information of the price of air fares, inclusive of taxes and charges.

Currently, air fares are advertised without information on taxes and charges, leaving passengers unaware of the full price that they would have to pay.

Dr Busuttil had pointed out this discrepancy in the law and insisted that it should be remedied.

The Commission now proposes to change the law to require companies to publish the full fares inclusive of all applicable taxes, charges and fees.

An EU law on Unfair Commercial Practices requiring full information in prices was already enacted last year and is set to enter into force next year, said Dr Busuttil. However, this new Commission proposal will apply expressly to air transport services and is intended to deal with the specific issue of advertising of air fares.

The proposal also prohibits price discrimination between passengers solely on the basis of their place of residence within the European Union.

Welcoming the proposal, Dr Busuttil said that this was an important step forward in the protection of passenger rights.

“Misleading publicity in air fares will soon be a thing of the past”, he said.

Over the past months, Dr Busuttil had raised this issue repeatedly and took the matter to the European Commission through a parliamentary question tabled earlier this year. The Commission had replied that it was considering extending the obligation specifically to air fares. The proposal was in fact published this week and will now go through the legislative proposal in the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers.