TORINO. The pandemic that is coming to an end leaves behind a poisoned tail for those who resume traveling: the Assoutenti organization publishes a detailed dossier in which it documents how airlines have transformed many ancillary services from free to expensive, and also some of the services so far included in the overall package but now separated and paid for. This makes the final price of the tickets opaque, because comparisons become difficult or impossible if you only discover little by little which and how many additional charges are. The organization reports the problem to the Antitrust (i.e. the market guarantor) and raises a suspicion: behind the flurry of price increases there would not only be the desire of the companies to recover some money after the huge losses due to the coronavirus, but also the temptation to “exploit travelers’ fears to monetize Covid and raise cash”.
Even apart from the coronavirus, the phenomenon of additional cost items had been mounting for years, with “low cost” leading the way; the novelty is that now the trend has spread to traditional airlines all over the world, as illustrated by a report by IdeaWorks-CarTrawler published a few days ago (the English definition for extra items is “ancillary revenue”). The Italian Antitrust confirms to La Stampa that the problem is serious and will probably be the subject of an upcoming investigation; after all, the Guarantor has been very vigilant in repressing the improper behavior of airlines linked to Covid, such as flights illegally sold and canceled under the excuse of the pandemic and with no refund other than vouchers.
Let’s start with Assoutenti’s complaint. “Comparing the ticket prices on the websites of the main carriers – says the president Furio Tuzzi – it turns out that the basic cost is in line with those of the past few years”, and this is positive in the first place, “but in the meantime many related services to air transport, from boarding to gates to hand luggage, from food and drinks on board to car parking, have been paid for, applying fares that in extreme cases can triple the cost of a single flight ». Let’s take the choice of seat: “Until recently it was free with traditional airlines, while now it is paid, and the closer the seat is to the exit door of the aircraft, the more it costs, taking advantage of the fear of gatherings and the need for passengers to stay on board for as little time as possible. It is not enough: when purchasing tickets, companies offer expensive travel insurance related to Covid, to cover medical and repatriation costs in the event of contagion and to allow the cancellation of bookings. This is monetizing fear ».
The aforementioned study by IdeaWorks-CarTrawler reports that the world champion of extra tax is (fortunately) quite far from the usual range of Italian travelers: it is the Mexican airline Viva Aerobus, which obtains almost half of the “ancillary revenue” of its income (47.8%). But also some well-known carriers in Italy are involved in the phenomenon: for the Hungarian Wizz Air the share is 41.1%, for the Spanish Volotea of 34.8%, for the Irish Ryanair of 31.7% and for the British easyJet by 20.5%. However, beware, these numbers, even if released by a report dated June 2021, refer to 2018: in the meantime, the “low cost” airlines are given further work (already a year later, in 2019, Wizz Air has risen at 45.4% and Ryanair at 34.5%) and traditional ones have closed part of the gap.
On the phenomenon, the analysts of the aeronautical sector have different opinions, even if it is, more than anything else, a diversity of accents (it is obvious that the condemnation is unanimous): Gregory Alegi, former professor of airline management, underlines that at least we can defend ourselves from some of the “ancillary revenue”: “No one is obliged to choose a paid seat or to take out an insurance policy”, while Antonio Bordoni, professor of the same subject, says that “the unpacking of expense items is a serious problem, it is to be hoped that the Antitrust will intervene with energy ».