House Bill Lets Airlines Advertise Pre-tax Fares

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a victory for airlines and their workers' unions, the House rejected consumers' complaints and easily passed legislation Monday letting airline advertising emphasize the base price of tickets, before taxes and fees are added. Groups representing airline passengers and companies that rely on corporate travel derided the bill's name, the Transparent Airfares Act of 2014, as Orwellian. [...] the airlines — backed by unions representing pilots, mechanics and flight attendants — say including taxes and fees in their advertised prices hurts business and hides from consumers the extra costs that government imposes on air travel. Showing the full price "can dampen demand for travel and ultimately cost even more jobs in an industry that has lost nearly one-third of its work force since 2001, typically resulting in reduced service to small and rural communities," according to an April letter to lawmakers from Airlines for America, the industry's chief trade group, and other airline and labor organizations. According to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, almost 60 percent of the $2.2 million in political contributions since January 2013 from airline political committees and individual workers has gone to Republicans. Critics argued that under the existing regulation, airlines are free to display in their ads the taxes and fees that are added to ticket prices.