http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4271197.stm

The airlines moan about the cost, but the easy fix is to charge for the booking instead of the flight; that way the no-shows would have to pay. one could not indiscriminately book flights JUST IN CASE without a cost.

Tomboy, I'm confused. How is it possible to book flights and not incur a cost?

refundable tickets. Yes you are charged when you book, but you can get a credit back if you do not fly.

Keith

Patrick: Here's what I meant. The new rules call for greater cost to the airline for bumping a passenger due to overbooking. The airline wouldn't have to overbook if they could charge for no-shows. Currently, one doesn't need to cancel a reservation to avoid the cost, only to not show up. So, the airlines compensate by overbooking. That need would be eliminated (or at least reduced) if they could charge no-shows that didn't cancel before takeoff.

The overbooking rules are trivial.

What this absurd nanny-state nonsense does is far more serious. By mandating compensation payments for short-haul delays and cancellations several times higher than the average Easyjet or Ryanair fare, this apparent piece of consumer protection is just a way of keeping the undead airlines - like Alitalia - on their life support systems a couple of years longer.

While Ryanair and Easyjet will find a way round the insanity, these rules will keep new cheapos out of the market, and put further pressure on the struggling second-division budget operators. Like everything coming from the great job-destroying machine in Brussels, this will reduce competition and make things worse for European consumers.