Pulaski

FIFY

Only another Freddie Laker will change things. Virgin doesn't undercut anyone, they're just another airline fleecing their passengers, except they pack more passengers in than the others.

loubiblu

Slightly OT, but I remember the day Skytrain went t*ts up. It was early '82 IIRC. I was travelling back from the US to the UK with my mum and sis. We always did standby and we got caught up in the chaos in Miami for 2 days! Ended up flying 1st Class on Air Belguim via Geneva and Brussels - pretty cool when you're 10!

GeoffM

I recommended a friend go on Oasis Air (I think it was called) who did LGW-HKG flights. We'd been on them twice (4 flights) and they were great - a low cost, long haul airline. Unfortunately fuel costs going up wiped them out, and my friend was on what became the last LGW-HKG flight - announced as they were coming in to land at HKG. He had to make his own way back home again at great cost, and couldn't for a few days because all the airlines were fully booked. Not the best advice I ever gave somebody!

Our first flight on Oasis was routed via southern Europe, Georgia, India, up into China, and then back down again to Hong Kong - because Russia hadn't yet granted an overfly license. Took about 14 hours instead of the 12 that route should take, via Moscow usually.

Vimto

I saw this in the Daily Fail the other day showing the breakdown of taxes and fees that make up a LHR - JFK flight
Infographic reveals true cost of a transatlantic flight | Daily Mail Online

GeoffM

Considering most of those costs are pretty much fixed, and the price of a ticket varies wildly, I'm willing to bet that the DM has picked a ticket price that produces the conclusion they set out to achieve! I see they didn't include both positive and negatives factors in that, such as premium classes and reward travel.

LondonSquirrel

I myself believe that UK air passenger duty is outrageous and probably the reason why, according to yesterday's paper, most Chinese tourists shun the UK for other destinations.

Those traveling to the USA pay proportionally most. A flights to Oz is over 3 times as far but those going to Oz do not pay £450 APD.

davidtheprof

Boston-London prices have skyrocketted - last year, an expensive summer ticket was 1200-1400, off-season under $1000. Now direct flights are $1700-1900, and without a Sat night stopover, around $2600!! (bringing back the Sat. night hurdle is an old airline trick to catch business travelers, but that had mostly disappeared till now). This is despite strong dollar and very low fuel prices, which alone should reduce costs by 15-20%. Main cause, I think, is that American no longer has its own flights to LHR, all operated by BA, so closer to a monopoly, and down to 4 instead of 6 flights a day.

kins

I just got flights on Aer Lingus Boston-Dublin-Manchester (same price for Heathrow) for $980 per person leaving June 16th and staying over a Sat night.

davidtheprof

and Wow, an Icelandic discount airline, has started flights (from March 2015) Boston (also Baltimore) to Gatwick with Reykjavik stopover, but apart from a few much publicized $200 fares, flights are around $1000 over the summer. With narrow body planes, and steep charges for anything more than 5kg of hand-luggage.

scrubbedexpat091

They are not getting away with anything. Airlines can only charge what people are willing to pay, if people are paying the offered fares, then the market is priced accurately.

If you don't like the price, don't buy the ticket.

I always find it amusing when people wan't to fly during peak times, and are surprised fares are higher then other times.

Using random dates in June (1st and 15th) and cheapest flight option via MSP, I get total price of 2199 US which is only about 27 cents per mile (using great circle mapper and nautical miles) which is fairly decent price when broken down per mile.

I have no clue what Delta's cost per passenger per mile is, but it's probably not a huge profit for them.

I've paid more per mile on a short 1,500 mile trip.

Lower fuel prices have no real bearing on fares, an airline isn't going to just reduce fares because their costs went down if they can charge more, why charge less if the market is willing to pay more?

Pulaski

That's all well and good if there is plenty of competition, but on international routes the flights are heavily regulated, and an increasing number of airports are effectively "full", with no more slots available, or gates for new entrants either for that matter, so when there is more demand but no way to increase supply, prices will and do rise above the competitive "cost plus fair profit" that economics predicts for an open and competitive market.

There are certain routes and airports in the US with limited, if any, competition. A few years ago Mrs P tried to fly to the far end of NC and could only find tickets for $800 when $1,000-$1,100 could have got her a flight to London! Such prices are not fair, reasonable, or competitive but reflect airline stranglehold on some routes.

scrubbedexpat091

The issues in the US with those small airports is there really is no demand for more then 1 airline and usually using small planes and depending on airport government subsidies to keep them afloat and the prices reflect that. Lots of those airports are lucky to even have service, and those flights are largely connecting passengers and not local passengers, so most won't be paying fares like that.

If there was demand there would be more competition. There is generally a reason why airports have only 1 airline.

LondonSquirrel

Thanks for this. I'll check it out. Funnily enough DH and I are going to Iceland for a short break in April with Wow but I had no idea they were going to start flights to Boston. We haven't been there since 2011 because of the cost. Will also check it out for MIL to come to London to visit us. I think she'd manage a change and if it comes in to Gatwick, she prefers that over Heathrow and we are in SE London so it's easier all round.

LondonSquirrel

Checked Wow. They are almost totally fully booked up until October!

scrubbedexpat091

Iceland Air has proven very popular in North America, they have found a good niche to Europe.

If your near Canada at all, specifically New Foundland, Air Canada I believe still has a non-stop to London, and I think Westjet is going to have seasonal flights to Scotland from there as well but not 100% when it starts or the specifics.