Hawaiian Airlines, two others fined by feds

The U.S. Department of Transportation on Monday ordered three airlines, including Hawaiian Airlines, to pay fines for violating consumer regulations.

The U.S. Department of Transportation on Monday ordered three airlines, including Hawaiian Airlines, to pay fines for violating consumer regulations.

The D.O.T. determined that Hawaiian, owned by Hawaiian Holdings, and US Airways failed to disclose to ticket buyers when flights were being operated under a code-share agreement with another airline.

According to the D.O.T., โ€œThe disclosure must include the corporate name of the transporting carrier and any other name under which the flight is offered to the public.โ€

The failure of Hawaiian and US Airways to disclose the code-sharing was revealed by investigators who made telephone calls to both carriersโ€™ reservation lines.

The D.O.T. found that reservation agents failed to disclose code-sharing โ€œduring a substantial numberโ€ of those calls.

Hawaiian was fined $50,000 and US Airways was fined $70,000.

In other action, Continental Airlines was fined $75,000 for violating the departmentโ€™s requirement that airfare ads must state the full price to be paid by the consumer.

The carrier had advertised fares on its Web site that did not properly contain a notice of additional taxes or government fees.

Continental also listed many fares that were advertised as โ€œeach wayโ€ or โ€œone-wayโ€ without disclosing they were available only for a round-trip purchase.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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