The Department of Transportation said last week that it had fined Continental Airlines $20,000 for advertising low fares from Newark to Europe last February but making too few seats available at those fares. It said it had discovered the shortage of seats through routine calling to check availability of advertised fares.
“We will not tolerate airlines’ low fare no fair practices,” said Transportation Secretary Federico F.Pena.
The department also said the Continental ads had not adequately stated the lengthy “blackout” periods when the fares did not apply. The department has ordered that a reasonable number of seats be available for sale each time an ad is run. Even if more than 70% of the seats during the same period are sold at the advertised fare, an airline cannot run an ad near the end of the sale period unless a reasonable number of seats are still open.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 12, 1993
