At least 200 European airline websites are misleading the consumer, a study by the European Commission has found.

Websites are failing to show taxes and charges, and refusing to advertise the lowest fare prominently, according to the report.

Ryanair's website is one of those found to be misleading, Spanish authorities have revealed.

The Commission could force offending websites to close next year if they fail to improve.

15 different national airline authorities across the EU took part in the exercise for a weekend at the end of September.

They trawled through 400 websites, and found half weren't complying in one way or other with EU law.

Common infringements included prices on the home page that don't include taxes and charges free flights that aren't in the end free compulsory purchase of insurance attached to an offer

The Commission has refused to name any airlines involved in order to give them time to improve their service.

But when Spain's consumer rights watchdog conducted a similar study, it named Ryanair as one of the culprits, along with Vueling, Iberia and Spainair.

The UK's Office of Fair Trading has already taken action against 13 airlines for leaving taxes, fuel fees and other charges off their advertised prices.

The Commission's study found that Belgian airlines were the worst offenders: 46 of the 48 Belgian websites surveyed broke consumer guidelines.

Meanwhile, Austria was the best performer, with none of the 20 Austrian airline websites judged to be misleading.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7091950.stm

Do you find this the case with Asian airlines ?

Of course. AFAIK misleading advertisement (showing an incomplete fare) isn't even illegal in Thailand and many Asian countries.

misleading advertisement isn't even illegal in Thailand and many Asian countries.

Obviously not, take a look at any new housing project ad. Total BS showing paradise property as it will never ever look like.

Heck yeah!

Air asia!

But am so used to Ryan Air etc offering 1p flights only for them to end up being £40 flights have just got used to it.

Anyway £40 for a flight is great value anyway and I think Air Asia are great so as Joe Public I'm not too bothered.