Facua (Federation of Associations of Consumers and Users of Andalusia) has denounced a total of sixteen airlines before the Ministry of Consumption for failing to comply with the regulations that require the availability of free telephone numbers for consumer service in a broad sense, and twelve other authorized companies and toll-free lines after complaints from the association.
In the months of November and December, Facua has investigated whether changes have been made to the websites of the airlines reported for the second time in May 2022 -they have already been a year ago- to assess whether they provided free telephone numbers and if they are visible in all the sections where they advertise their contact telephone numbers for the attention of both clients and non-clients, the organization has communicated.
In the new scan, it has detected that, of the 18 airlines that bypassed the legislation in May 2022, only two have carried out the minimum necessary changes (Ryanair and Jet2) and 16 still do not comply for various reasons. Thus, the Blue Air website indicates that it has disabled its call center, while Binter only offers a toll-free number for procedures related to customer service, suggestions, complaints and claims; but not for information and ticket sales.
Canary Fly also gives a free number in a non-highlighted color and with a very small size at the bottom of its page. Nor does Iberia, which offers a free telephone number for those users who already have a reservation, but pay for information management and new reservations in Spain, that is, procedures for non-customers.
Wizzair only has a pay line for the telephone service, Volotea, for its part, offers a toll-free number for information on reservations, but its central reservations line is paid. And Air Europa continues with a non-free telephone number for information and ticket sales, as is the case with Condor and its customer service line.
For its part, Iberojet highlights a 971 telephone on its home page and is always prominently present in all sections of the web. Easyjet and Finnair only have a pay phone for their efforts, and Iceland Air does not even have a number for Spain. And, both SAS, as well as Transavia, Wamos Air and EgyptAir, only provide a cost telephone number to carry out any procedure, according to Facua’s analysis.
