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The budget carrier's latest fee is criticised as being 'completely against consumer interest' just as a slew of negative statistics are released on domestic aviation worldwide
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is to examine a complaint from the air passenger watchdog about Ryanair check-in charges, as airlines fight to raise revenues and slash costs amid deteriorating traffic numbers.
The Air Transport Users Council (AUC) plans to lodge concerns with the OFT about Ryanair's new pricing regime, which will charge customers £10 when they check in online for a return flight – regardless of whether they have bags. The AUC said it would refer the fee, which may breach consumer protection regulations, to the OFT.
"If a charge is optional and transparent, like bag check-in charges, it is not necessarily to the detriment of consumers. Our concern is when charges are non-optional. This move is completely against the consumer interest," said James Fremantle, AUC industry affairs manager. A spokesman for the OFT said the watchdog would take the complaint "seriously".
Ryanair, however, defended the charges, which will be introduced later this year as part of a campaign to remove all check-in desks from its airports. The fee will be waived for passengers travelling on promotional fares, but those account for less than a third of Ryanair's sales, meaning that most of its 58m passengers this year will face the added cost. A Ryanair spokesman said the airline's average fares have fallen from €43 to €34 in recent months and ticket prices will remain low. "Ryanair passengers will gladly pay £5 for the convenience of checking in online, avoiding long queues at airports and the temptation to spend vast sums of money in overpriced airport retail centres."
The Ryanair spat follows a grim forecast from the Civil Aviation Authority that the British air travel market is heading for decline in 2008-09 – the first slump in successive years since World War Two. It is matched by a poor outlook for the global industry. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) says passenger numbers dropped for the fifth successive month in January, falling 5.6%. There is a slew of negative statistics: US domestic carriers have cut capacity by 10%: European carriers have reduced capacity by 3.6%; and the global industry lost at least $5bn last year.
The severity of the cutbacks has stoked a debate about how deep the aviation downturn will be and whether it may change the industry. Chris Tarry, chairman of the CTAIRA consultancy, says up to 1,800 orders for 150-seater aircraft – the workhouses of domestic carriers – could be deferred or cancelled. "There are orders that were placed in a bubble of exuberance and that bubble has now burst," he says.
If the industry emerges from the downturn in a reduced state, there will be speculation that demand could stay depressed for longer than expected. It is against this backdrop that many carriers are cutting fares. Ryanair plans to add more than 40 planes to its 181-strong fleet next year and is slashing fares to keep its services full. British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Lufthansa are also cutting business class ticket prices. According to IATA, the number of worldwide passengers flying business or first class fell 16.7% in January with premium fares dropping by about 6%.
Dan Milmo's work on the troubled public-private partnership programme for the London Underground saw him win journalist of the year at the London Transport Awards last week for the second year running.
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