Ancillary revenues: GAO report and Subcommittee hearings promise more regulations

The much awaited GAO Report on ancillaries coincided with last week's House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Aviation Subcommittee hearings. These were all about transparency, taxes along with populism, as it became open season on Spirit Airlines President and CEO Ben Baldanza, as Congress turned its attention on airline fees. The outcome is likely to be pressures - and most probably more regulations - to require greater transparency - and even, possibly, rolling back ancillary charges. There was also talk of (perhaps double) taxation of such charges. Regulations would also cover foreign airline disclosure, if the GAOs recommendations are accepted.