Airlines facing review after concerns they split groups to make passengers pay more
RYANAIR said it will co-operate with British aviation authorities after they launched a review into whether passengers are being deliberately separated from their travelling companions if they don’t pay extra to sit together.
The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has launched an industry-wide review of airlines’ allocated seating policies after surveying consumers and finding confusion among the travelling public.
The probe will include examining whether any airlines are pro-actively splitting up groups of passengers who could be seated together.
A CAA survey of 4,000 passengers across 11 airlines found adult passengers travelling with Ryanair were significantly more likely to report being separated from their group than those using other airlines, if they hadn’t paid more to sit together. The figure for Ryanair was 35pc compared to an average at all airlines of 18pc.
Ryanair has said it doesn’t deliberately separate groups but that other passengers choosing window or aisle seats means it is common for people to be split up.
“Ryanair is happy to participate in any review by the CAA into seating policy. Our policy is very clear for our customers and seats can be purchased from just €2 and kids travelling in families get free (allocation of ) seats,” a spokeswoman said.
Reserved
The CAA survey only covered adults travelling together. Ryanair said its seating policy requires families with children under 12 to sit together, with one adult taking a reserved seat (for €4), and the children given free-of-charge reserved seats.
CAA chief executive Andrew Haines said its survey had found confusion among the travelling public around the issue, but said people who booked flights together had no automatic right to be seated together.
“Airline seating practices are clearly causing some confusion for consumers. Airlines are within their rights to charge for allocated seats, but if they do so it must be done in a fair, transparent way. Our research shows that some consumers are paying to sit together when, in fact, they might not need to.”
The CAA is the body responsible for protecting and promoting the interests of consumers travelling by air from the UK.
“Findings from our research show that UK consumers collectively may be paying between £160m (€181m) and £390m (€442m) per year for allocated seating. Of those paying, two-thirds spent between £5 and £30 (€34) per seat and a further 8pc paid £30 or more. Our work will consider whether or not these charges are fair and transparent,” the CAA said.
The agency said it will now seek more information from airlines about their allocated seating practices to find out whether consumers are being treated fairly, and whether pricing policies are transparent.
“Our work programme on behalf of passengers in 2018 will include a number of reviews into airline practices including allocated seating, improving access to air travel for people with disabilities, and ticketing terms and conditions,” the CAA said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Ryanair has said it will begin flying from Jordan for the first time next month as it expands its operations in the Middle East.
The airline already operates routes to Israel and Morocco. It will add a route from Amman, Jordan, to Paphos in Cyprus in March, it said in a statement. Next winter it will fly 14 routes from Amman and Aqaba.
It said it eventually expects to fly 430,000 passengers per year to and from Jordan.
Jordan has an ‘open skies’ agreement with the EU that allows EU operators into the market without additional regulatory hurdles.