A $150,000 penalty has been assessed against the online ticket agent Airtrade by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). DOT said Airtrade failed to properly disclose to consumers when flights were being operated under a code-sharing arrangement and ordered the company to cease and desist from future violations. It was Airtrade’s second violation of the code-share disclosure rule in the past two years, DOT said.
“When passengers book air travel, they have the right to know which airline will be operating their flight,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. “We will continue to take enforcement action when an airline or ticket agent violates our code-share disclosure rule.”
In a consent order issued on April 26, 2011, the Department assessed a $50,000 penalty against Airtrade for violating the code-share disclosure rule on its Internet web site. At that time, the company appeared to have corrected its web site to comply with the rule, DOT said. However, a follow-up investigation by DOT’s Aviation Enforcement Office found that, for a period of time after the first violation, Airtrade once again failed to properly disclose code-sharing arrangements when advertising code-share flights operated on behalf of a major air carrier by a regional air carrier, DOT said.
Airtrade did not display the corporate names of the transporting carriers or any other names under which those flights were sold to the public during the flight selection and booking process. As a result, consumers were unable to immediately learn the identity of the airline that would actually operate the aircraft on which they would be flying, DOT said.
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