Madam, - It is encouraging to note that the National Consumer Agency is planning a legal challenge aimed at forcing airlines to pay refunds to their customers and display their prices more clearly. By now we are used to bank announcements to the effect that in a recent review of their activities they have come across inadvertent overcharging and that they are making refunds plus interest, without anyone having to make a formal claim. Not making refunds where a service is not availed of is also overcharging, but in the airlines' case they use the proceeds either to boost their profits or to subsidise other travellers. This is notwithstanding the fact that they have all the relevant details to hand.
I also note that certain airlines consider that they should be exempt from regulations relating to the fight against global warming for various reasons including that their impact on the totality of the problem would be insignificant. Planned expansion of their activities would suggest otherwise. Have they not heard of the Power of One? How about the Power of One Airline?
A very positive contribution they could make would be to estimate the carbon footprint of each flight at the time of booking and give the members of the public an opportunity to make an optional contribution which they would then pass on to an appropriate agency. This might at least give them some credibility when they are inevitably asked to play their part in the battle ahead. The airline industry in some of its manifestations has had a prolonged adolescence. It is now time to grow up. - Yours, etc,
TONY BARDON,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16