Mile-High Muggers Get Their Comeuppance (but more needs to be done)

It would seem that my blog post regarding the extortionate charges airlines levy on their customers (see Mile-High Mugging) was somewhat topical as, unbeknownst to me, the very same day on which I uploaded it the European Commission fined eleven airlines a total of nearly €800m. It wasn’t in relation to fees for flight changes or indeed any passenger-related charges, but it is still a lot of money and it just might make them think. The record fines were for air cargo price-fixing, which went on from 1999 to 2006 before it was reported by an airline that decided to come forward. The illegal cartel co-ordinated with each other to ensure that their charges for fuel and security were consistently the same, effectively enforcing a flat rate surcharge. According to European Competition Commissioner, Joaquin Alumnia, the airlines involved had price-fixing meetings whereby they would ensure that every single carrier in the cartel increased their prices.


The ‘deplorable’ cartel, as Alumnia described it, might have primarily affected companies (although of course consumers always end up paying for it in the long run with hiked prices on goods to cover the cost of freight) but the principle is there. Big airlines cannot go around enforcing ridiculous fees just because they can. Now, it seems, they can’t - they won’t get away with it. Perhaps next the European Commission could look into passenger surcharges. Seriously, what is going on with these airlines? They burst into flames mid-air (2 Airbus A380s and now a Boeing 747 Dreamliner too, all within a week), they are increasingly stingy with what you get for free (on how many airlines do you now have to pay extra for checked luggage, earphones, food, drink? I had to pay for water on a recent domestic flight which I can assure you was not cheap but sure seemed like a no-frills service), their crews strike at times engineered to cause maximum chaos for all, their computers malfunction resulting in hundreds of cancelled and delayed flights and thousands of stranded passengers. It all begs the question - what exactly is it that we’re paying for?