Airlines are not allowed to charge passengers extra for printing their boarding cards at the airport. This was the clear announcement made by the Consumers Department at the Junta de Andalucía in a press release that maintains that providing a boarding pass is included in the flight reservation and cannot be considered an additional service or one that is separate from that of transporting the passenger. The department pointed out that some ‘low cost’ airlines charge up to 40 euros for this service.
“The current regulations regarding air travel oblige airlines to issue passengers with a ticket free of charge, and state that this should be the only document required to gain access to the transport”, points out the department.
The statement clarifies that the application of this abusive boarding pass clause is more common in airlines that enable passengers to check-in and obtain their boarding passes on internet and that a service that should be offered as an option has become an obligation.
The Consumers Department informs customers that not only are the airlines not permitted to charge extra for boarding passes, but neither can they deny access to the plane after refusing to print out a boarding pass free of charge.
“This can be penalised as a case of gross misconduct and subject to a fine ranging from 5,001 to 30,000 euros”, said the department.
At present the Junta de Andalucía is in the middle of an inspection campaign which involves 54 airlines operating in_Andalucía and is due to conclude on February 28th. Since December 28th inspectors have been checking the websites, check-in desks and information and ticket sales counters of the companies against which they have received consumer complaints. More than 30 of these firms are ‘low cost’ airlines. The department points out that in 2010, 967 complaints reached them concerning air travel.
Similar inspections in 2009 found that 74 per cent of the 147 companies investigated failed in some way to comply with legislation, mainly via their websites. The main problems found were a lack of adequate information and the inclusion of abusive clauses such as reserving the right to increase taxes or flight prices even after the tickets had been issued.
This year’s inspections concentrate on the reservations procedure on internet, advertising, information available at customer services desks, services offered at baggage check-in desks and assistance given.
Airport growth above average
To be precise the increase in passengers using Malaga Airport in January was 8.1 per cent, two percentage points higher than the average for Spanish airports. This was the second greatest increase out of all of Spain’s large airports, behind Barcelona which started 2011 with an increase of 20 per cent.
According to figures for last month released by the airports authority Aena, in January 589,994 passengers used the terminal on 6,329 flights. The figures are a vast improvement on 2010 when passenger figures fell in January.
Also last month the number of passengers on international flights landing at or taking off from Malaga Airport increased by 6.8 per cent. The majority came from or travelled to the UK, 187,322 passengers, while 46,257 travelled between Malaga and Germany, and 26,070 between Malaga and France. Meanwhile the number of passengers on domestic flights increased in January by 9.1 per cent, despite competition from the high speed trains to Madrid and Barcelona.
The busiest day of the month was Sunday January 2nd when 32,397 passengers passed through the airport, 4,576 of them between 10 and 11 o’clock in the morning.