EasyJet is making changes overnight to the way consumers pay for its flights with the introduction of a £9 administration charge.
The airline will display the £9 flat fee levied per booking, regardless of number of passengers or flights, upfront in the first stage of the booking process in response to repeated calls from the Office of Fair Trading in the UK and other European regulatory bodies over transparent pricing.
The low-cost airline is also removing free payments using Visa Electron cards with the card now carrying a charge similar to other payment types.
According to an easyJet spokesman the majority of customers are unaffected as use of Visa Electron as a payment method has been diminishing with fewer banks supporting the option.
He also claims the airline's £9 administration fee will make booking its flights more transparent with the fee displayed as 'part of a full and final flight price' and highlighted in all of easyJet's advertising.
"One of the objections the OFT has had is the consumer does not know the full price. This is highly clear and transparent and the charge for the flight will not change after that."
The airline, which says it has been working on these changes for a number of months and tested them on passengers, says the fee will help cover its rising costs including air passenger duty.
Credit card bookings will continue to have a 2.5% charge levied against them.
A number of airlines have been repeatedly rapped by the OFT in recent years for their failure to provide a final price upfront to the consumer as well as unreasonable payment card charges.