BA & other airlines being investigated over alleged cartel activity

[UKDEB]

Breaking news on Sky News at the moment. Seems that it's all surrounding fuel surcharges. Certain personnel have been suspended during investigation, so it sounds fairly serious.

 

[wilma-bride]

Hmmm, interesting. Might have to get Sky News on the telly here at work

 

[Pootle]

I'll look out for this, how interesting.

I've just booked 'free' flights with miles on USAirways (but with Lufthansa) and was surprised to find that the taxes etc payable only amounted to £41 each. Much less than for flights booked via UK carriers

 

[angel659]

Will this mean cheaper fuel surcharges from Virgin.

 

[Cochise]

Cant see this stopping the charges, the airlines simply cant afford to absorb the costs of fuel. The BBC mentioned BA and AA at the top yet AA have been assured they are not being investigated. Funny how they specifically refer to BA and AA who have been rumoured for years to be a possible merger waiting to happen.

 

[AlanUK]

I have been watching this with interest today - I suspect there is more to come out yet. :

 

[daveyoghurt]

Will this mean cheaper fuel surcharges from Virgin.

I doubt that this will mean cheaper fuel surcharges from any airline, it is just an excuse to take more money from customers. You pay the fuel surcharge despite not knowing what the price of fuel will be when you eventually travel - if the price of fuel drops would any of us be expecting a refund?

I don't think we should be surprised about BA's alleged involvement, remember their dirty tricks campaign against Virgin?

 

[terrynewpack]

Scheduled airlines have been fixing their ticket prices for as long as I can remember.........and thats a long time. Nothing new in this at all and why its taken these governments all these years to get around to looking at it stinks slightly. There is more to this than meets the eye.


Terry

 

[AlanUK]

It looks from the latest update on the BBC website that it was Virgin that has ratted out BA for breaking the rules.

 

[daveyoghurt]

It looks from the latest update on the BBC website that it was Virgin that has ratted out BA for breaking the rules.

Fair play to Virgin then, they had two choices when they were allegedly informed by BA that they were increasing their surcharge, either match them or report them to the OFT - once again Virgin on the side of the consumer!

 

[mikki.young]

Fair play to Virgin then, they had two choices when they were allegedly informed by BA that they were increasing their surcharge, either match them or report them to the OFT - once again Virgin on the side of the consumer!

Or just taking an opportunity to cause problems for BA

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Two BA officials dropped hints on fuel surcharges to Virgin and they told the authorities.. But its like anything nowadays, Shops, supermarkets, holidays, flights, banks, with the internet everyone can see what the other competiton is doing and match it.

Even BBC and ITV, Kids programmes on Saturdays then suddenly both have cooks programmes,!

 

[UKDEB]

I must admit, I don't see what the fuss is about. But then, I don't understand all the Microsoft anti-trust stuff, either. To me, the fuel surcharges are just a business cost. I don't know why the airlines don't just include them in their fares and have done with it. Before we know it, we'll have taxi drivers charging a regular fare then adding a fuel surcharge.

 

[daveyoghurt]

Or just taking an opportunity to cause problems for BA

Given BA's dirty tricks campaign a while back, if I was Virgin I'd be dropping them in it at every opportunity. Whether they're doing it for their own sake or not, it'll be the customer that benefits. The only reason there are these surcharges are that it makes the various companies base cost seem cheaper.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Might be 'self' protection by virgin, if a couple of BA staff did this and Virgin didnt report it, they would then be investigated themselves and it would be more difficult for them to say its not them.

So on the facts so far they did the only thing they could to protect themselves.