The cost of using a debit or credit card to book flights with some airlines has gone up by over 600 percent in 18 months.

Published: 20 Jul 2009

The cost of using a debit or credit card to book flights with some airlines has gone up by over 600 percent in 18 months.

This finding is based on a new research initiated by the UK-based Which? Holiday. Figure is based on a fictional total flight price of £300 for two adults, and using data from October 2007 and May 2009.

Ryanair charges 614 percent more than it did 18 months ago for debit card transactions (excluding Visa Electron), increasing fees from 70p to £5 per person each way, while using a credit card has gone from £2 to £5 per person each way.

Which? Holiday magazine found that - based on flight tickets for two adults costing a total of £300 - Thomas Cook UK charged £10 per booking for using a debit card and First Choice customers paid £2.50. Eighteen months ago neither levied a charge.

A spokesman from Thomas Cook, according to bbc.co.uk, said several types of credit and debit cards could be used to purchase flights and some did not attract a fee.

Which? Holiday found that it’s not all bad news for consumers, however. Eighteen months ago, bmiBaby levied a one percent charge for paying with a debit card, but now there’s no charge. Virgin Atlantic has changed its policy to charge 1.3 percent of the total booking for credit card payments, instead of £3 per person. On a booking costing £300 for two adults this amounts to a saving of over £2. BA doesn’t charge for using a debit card to pay for flights.

Lorna Cowan, editor or Which? Holiday, said, “The amount charged by the airlines should be reflective of the costs incurred by them. This does not appear to be the case with current charges, and we are concerned that airlines may be using them as a way of boosting profits.”