Website sales named and shamed
The European Commission has released a "blacklist" of airlines that it said risked misleading customers over online ticket prices, breaching EU rules.
The list of airlines is reported to include Aeroflot, Emirates, Northwest Airlines, Olympic Airways, Turkish Airlines and Royal Air Maroc.
EC authorities are said to be alarmed by charges hidden until the end of the booking process.
Reports said some airlines are confusing customers by advertising fares in different currencies, or even displaying non-existent low fares to pull in traffic.
Meglena Juneva, EU consumer protection commissioner, this week revealed the findings of the "enforcement investigation".
"This first pan-European enforcement investigation has shown it has real teeth and can deliver. The next step is an industrywide agreement, and we will continue to monitor developments in the sector closely," Ms Juneva said in a statement.
The 18 month crackdown started in September 2007. The EU said 115 out of 137 airline websites had been investigated and corrected in that time.
"Following an additional ‘health check' process involving independent mystery shopping in March 2009 on 67 major airlines, 52 airlines have either been given a ‘clean bill of health' and undertaken to maintain the same standards or immediately responded to the Commission's consultation," the EU said.
bmi, Iberia and Virgin Atlantic are among the airlines to have passed the EU's 154-point "health check".
British Airways and Air France KLM "narrowly avoided" being put on the blacklist, reports said.
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