Trump Administration Rolls Back on Obama’s Airline Fee Transparency Proposals
Jackie Reddy March 06, 2017
These two pieces of legislation were intended to empower travelers by forcing airlines to share information on ancillary fees.
While airline and airfare transparency were priorities under President Obama, it appears that it is less so under the current administration. President Trump’s predecessor set forth a couple of proposals that sought to clarify how, exactly, airline fares and fees were marketed to travelers. Under Obama, these proposals were open for comment, but Trump’s administration has now moved to halt the collection of any further feedback.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced its intentions this week in the Federal Register. It said that the suspension of comment collection would allow it to “further study the issues”. USA Today reports that each of the withdrawal notices on the register’s website said “The suspension of the comment period will allow the president’s appointees the opportunity to review and consider this action.”
One proposal requested information on how the airline industry markets its fares, availability of tickets and flight schedules. The idea was to ensure full transparency of fares, tickets and routes for all passengers. It had already received over 56,000 comments before the expiration of its commentary period on March 31.
The second proposal was aimed at getting airlines to disclose their fees for checked bags as well as carry-on luggage when a full ticket price is displayed. This proposal received 49 comments during it commentary period, which was due to expire on March 20.
While these proposals were intended to empower consumers, some within the travel industry found them to be intrusive.
Speaking to reporters at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Aviation Summit, Alexandre de Juniac, CEO of the International Air Transport Association, was quoted by the outlet as saying “It is not the business of government to regulate the information exchange between the customers and the airlines. They don’t have to tell us what type of information – what our ancillary revenue is or options we can provide – and how we communicate with customers.”
However, Juniac also said that he hoped that Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao would take another look at these two proposals.
[Photo: Shutterstock]
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I don't care if they display it on the final price page. As long as it is in the fine print, the fine print is final and legally binding, and there is only one place for the fine print, I'm ok with it.
Make Americans unaware of consumer rip-offs great again.
"Speaking to reporters at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Aviation Summit, Alexandre de Juniac, CEO of the International Air Transport Association, was quoted by the outlet as saying “It is not the business of government to regulate the information exchange between the customers and the airlines." Sadly, the government stepped in because of the shady practices and the lack of transparency by the airlines. Bend over consumers.