US: House bill would allow airlines to exclude taxes from fare ads

Airlines would no longer have to include taxes when initially advertising their fares, under House legislation a committee will vote on Tuesday. The provision, the source of a long-running conflict between consumer advocates and airlines, is part of FAA legislation at the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The House has approved similar measures in the past, but the Senate hasn’t acted on them. The legislation would overturn a DoT requirement that airlines include all taxes in the first mention of fares in their advertising. The department's goal was to prevent bait-and-switch ads featuring low fares that then grew with taxes. Airlines have long fought the requirement, arguing that no other industry has to include taxes when advertising prices for their products. <br/>