By Charlotte Beugge

Airline Easyjet has changed the way it charges customers for paying with debit cards when buying flights online.

The airline has introduced a £9 flat administration fee to replace the previous £8 booking fee which was charged for any passengers paying with the vast majority of debit cards.

Only payments with Visa Electron cards were free from the booking fee. Before, Easyjet charged £8 for credit card payments plus 2.5% or £4.95, whichever was the greater.

Now there will be a flat £9 charge which will appear at the start of the booking process and it will be one charge, regardless of the number of passengers on the booking. So instead of a family of four paying £48, they would pay £9.

Credit card customers will still pay an extra charge to cover handling costs.

A spokesman for Easyjet said the changes had been made to "address the concerns raised by consumer bodies and regulators across the BB while retaining a simple, transparent and consistent booking process for all passengers regardless of nationality".

In December, the government said it wanted to make online prices clearer, over concerns that there were high charges which could add substantially to the cost of flights - but these costs may not appear immediately apparent.

The BBC says that Easyjet says its new fee will not be subject to the new legislation.

The Office of Fair Trading said that in 2010, travellers spent £300 million on card surcharges for flights. Which? said it was a "step in the right direction" as "at least now people can see upfront what they'll pay in total".