News: Easyjet switch to all inclusive pricing
Flights > News > # 280 (23/03/2005)
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Easyjet has now changed its website to include an "all inclusive" price quotation when users are searching for cheap flights with them.
The Air Transport Users Council has previously highlighted consumers' dislike of airlines trying offering low fares that do not exist by adding a host of taxes and charges later on in the booking process. easyJet has been praised by the AUC for doing more than any other airline to be transparent with its pricing and keep external charges to a minimum, by only displaying Air Passenger Duty (APD), the Government tax, separately.
The airline will now be going one step further, and will be the first airline to introduce all inclusive pricing early this summer, to ensure consumers are presented with the final cost from the start of the booking process. easyJet has been advocating an industry move to all inclusive pricing for some time. It claims that some airlines (for which we can take it that they mean Ryanair in particular, although the Big Orange doesn't like to be seen to be green with envy at its rival) have used the "taxes and charges" element of the fare as a dumping ground for all sorts of fees - from fuel surcharges to wheelchair levies.
The airline also claims that "High-cost" (traditional scheduled) airlines in particular have externalised large proportions of their fares to mislead consumers into believing that they offer fares low enough to compete with them.
All inclusive pricing has been in practice in advertising for years and with this latest innovation, easyJet claims to be starting the trend online. Ray Webster, Chief Executive, said: "Consumers cannot be fooled by misleading upfront fares. In fact, they base their decision to buy depending upon the final price they see. It's time the consumer was given credit by other airlines and presented with an honest total fare upfront to make the decision making process quicker and easier. Again easyJet will be the market leader in changing the airline industry to be more focused on the customers needs whilst maintaining our famously low (and all-inclusive) fares.
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Comments:
This move will carry much more weight when easyJet do switch to displaying the fully inclusive price later in the summer. Whsilt they haven't yet set a date for this, their current pricing system presents a slightly confusing situation o
