The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) fined Aeroflot $60,000 for violations of its new passenger protection rules, with $30,000 of the penalty to be forgiven if Aeroflot does not violate the corresponding cease-and-desist order within one year. AeroflotConsentOrder
The DOT concluded that Aeroflot violated the new “full fare” advertising rule in 14 CFR 399.84(a) by displaying a fare matrix with base fares that did not include the amount of additional government taxes and fees. Although the total fare was displayed at the bottom of the page, the DOT emphasized that, under the new rule, the entire fare price must be displayed when the fare is first stated.
The DOT also found that Aeroflot did not include a commitment in its customer service plan – as otherwise required by 14 CFR 259.5(b)(4) – allowing reservations to be held at the quoted fare without payment, or otherwise canceled without penalty, for at least 24 hours after a reservation is made if the reservation is made one week or more before the flight is to depart.
This civil penalty is the latest in series of monetary penalties imposed on various foreign carriers in the past few months for violations of the new passenger protection rules.