Virgin Blue to move to All-Inclusive Fare Pricing

Virgin Blue is to move to all-inclusive air fare pricing from Tuesday May 10 following months of lobbying various organisations including the ACCC, the Australian Consumers Commission and the Australian Federal Government for an across board regulation on advertising practices.

The low fare carrier has been a strong advocate of all-inclusive pricing as an airline industry standard, but was forced earlier this year to follow the advertising practices of other Australian carriers in order to remain competitive.

Virgin Blue Chief Executive Brett Godfrey said, “We noted that the Treasurer has signalled his intention to amend the Trade Practices Act to ensure single figure pricing, this has given us the confidence to act now rather than wait for that change.”

Virgin Blue believed the practice to be confusing and misleading but was forced to follow suit or appear in consumers eyes to be the more expensive carrier and be at a competitive disadvantage in an increasingly competitive aviation market.

In recent months, the airline has been strongly campaigning for a change to the Trade Practices Act to enforce all-inclusive pricing for airlines so that all carriers are upfront in their advertising.

Brett Godfrey added, “We’ve said from day one that all-inclusive pricing is the most transparent and upfront way of advertising airfares and are glad our competition has come to realise that. People want to know that the advertised amount is what they are going to pay and not get any nasty surprises when they get to the end.”

“Travellers shouldn’t have to get out their binoculars to read the fine print and calculators to work out the total price of their flight. Reverting back to all-inclusive pricing is a victory for common sense and fairness”, Brett Godfrey finished.

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