The U.S. Department of Transportation this week extended the public comment period for a set of proposed reforms that would change how airlines are allowed to advertise bookings online.
Currently, under the 2011 “Full Fare Rule,” airlines must display the total ticket price – combining the fare, taxes, and fees – more prominently than any single component, but a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued earlier this year would do away with this requirement. The change would give carriers “greater flexibility,” the department said, while also ensuring that “information is presented clearly to consumers.”
In theory, the NPRM would allow airlines to display the fare alone, without taxes and fees, more prominently than the total price.
The proposal would also scrap nine air fare price advertising guidance documents that it said have become outdated.
Somewhat surprisingly, the DOT left the door open to rescinding the Full Fare Rule in its entirety.
“Today, the department is proposing a minor, but certainly meaningful, revision to the Full Fare Rule’s prominence provision,” the NPRM reads. “However, as an alternative, the department is considering repealing the Full Fare Rule in whole.”
The DOT said this week that it is extending the public comment period for the NPRM to give individuals and stakeholders more time to weigh in on a “complex” set of issues. The original deadline was July 31, but that has been pushed back to Aug. 21.
Department documents show Airlines For America, the nation’s largest airline trade association, and Southwest both asked for more time to review the case. A4A has not voiced a position on the proposal, but Southwest appeared to have some misgivings.
“Southwest indicated that it believes that the repeal of the full fare rule 14 years after it has gone into effect would be extremely disruptive and preliminarily opposes the rescission of the nine guidance documents, but notes that additional time is necessary for the carrier to study the impact of each guidance document,” the filings state.
Some comments submitted so far have questioned why the change is needed at all.
“Please continue to require airlines [to] post prices that include any and all taxes and fees,” one person wrote. “This has helped customers such as myself compare prices more easily. Who would benefit from a change to exclude taxes and/or fees from the up front stated price? It certainly would not be airline customers.”
Another person expressed concern that airlines could manipulate shoppers and price comparison tools by listing artificially low fares, then tacking on large fees later in the check-out process to make up the difference.
If approved, the NPRM would continue the Trump administration’s push to relax regulations for the airline industry. The DOT in 2025 rescinded or canceled a number of consumer protection rules issued by the Biden administration, including one that required airlines to pay fixed cash refunds to passengers whose flights are delayed by three hours or more. None of the Biden-era rules had gone into effect, with most being tied up in court after legal challenges from airlines.
