Airline users facing restricted choices

Date: 7/10/2009

Consumer choice is being restricted in the UK because of competition between premium and low-budget airlines.

That is the opinion of James Freemantle, industry affairs manager for the Air Transport Users Council, who has claimed that carriers such as British Airways (BA) are now following the model set by cheaper airlines in the short-haul market to stay competitive.

"For instance, BA introduced the baggage charges, so they're trying to compete on baggage charges," he said.

Mr Freemantle added that passengers are motivated by price more than anything else and urged consumers to "look at the whole picture and take into account the transport and/or travel costs".

Statistics released today by BA showed that premium traffic was down by nearly eight per cent year-on-year in September.

However, non-premium traffic was up by 0.7 per cent.

Despite this trend, budget airline easyJet, reported earlier this month that its business was up year-on-year, with the airline carrying 4.42 million passengers in September, up from 4.19 million on the same time the year previous.