Why have air fares sky-rocketed in the last year?

FWVT

It's something that's bugging me. Maybe we've become spoilt with the 99c fares in the past, but I've noticed that fares have increased disproportionately in the last year or so. It seems impossible to find a fare for less than €40 each way nowadays. Fuel prices have risen but not near to the extent that fares have.

Ryanair's latest sale on their site for travel in April quotes €19.99 to the UK each way, but trying to actually find a fare at that price is a different story. Before last year they would have 99c fares plastered on their site nearly every day but not any more. The same with Aer Lingus.

Trying to get a family of four away for a weekend anywhere in Europe is now coming in at a minimum of €500, whereas I did it before for €250. Fuel prices cannot be the sole reason for this. Ryanair did announce their profit margins earlier this year and put some of it down to increased fares, something they would be continuing this year too. If their profits are rising as they increase fares, then fuel prices are not the reason.

Best username ever

FWVT wrote: »

It's something that's bugging me. Maybe we've become spoilt with the 99c fares in the past, but I've noticed that fares have increased disproportionately in the last year or so. It seems impossible to find a fare for less than €40 each way nowadays. Fuel prices have risen but not near to the extent that fares have.

Ryanair's latest sale on their site for travel in April quotes €19.99 to the UK each way, but trying to actually find a fare at that price is a different story. Before last year they would have 99c fares plastered on their site nearly every day but not any more. The same with Aer Lingus.

Trying to get a family of four away for a weekend anywhere in Europe is now coming in at a minimum of €500, whereas I did it before for €250. Fuel prices cannot be the sole reason for this. Ryanair did announce their profit margins earlier this year and put some of it down to increased fares, something they would be continuing this year too. If their profits are rising as they increase fares, then fuel prices are not the reason.

I used to be able to fly to JFK for €900 for two adults, now it costs €1350, so yeah they have been hiking the fares up quite a bit. Depending on the day it can be up to €1700

E.S.T.

Fuel prices, mergers, airlines parking planes, airlines not taking as much risks, etc.

Shamrock231

FWVT wrote: »

If their profits are rising as they increase fares, then fuel prices are not the reason.

Yup, you've hit the nail on the head there, both Ryanair and Aer Lingus are private companies out to make a profit, not to provide cheap flights. If they can get away with charging higher they will. Supply and demand. What's needed is more competition. Unfortunately, should that competition actually appear, Aer Lingus and Ryanair will both undercut them until they leave the market, and then prices will go back up. Just the way it is now with less airlines around.

LoonyLovegood

I've found that shopping around really does help, along with booking in advance - as far in advance as you can. I managed to get to Manchester for €64 return with FR, and that included two booked seats, should have been €44. Managed to get two seats Dublin - Bos for less than €1000 return with EI for travelling in May, booked them a week ago.

devnull

Booking for UK to Ireland with FR you ideally need to be at least 6 weeks in advance if you will travel Fri-Mon, if you're going Tue/Wed/Thur you can still get the cheapest level flights normally 4-5 weeks in advance.

jamo2oo9

I'm looking for flights to Paris and back with both Ryanair and Aer Lingus in June. Only a two day trip and it rounds up to €350 for two! Ridiculous. I remember booking a flight to London for 10c with FR about four years ago. Wish nothing changed..

InReality

Article on ryanair in this weeks pheonix magazine

Strumms

There is still value to be found. Already this year I've booked EI to Barcelona for 120 return 7 weeks before departure. I've had a few weekends away in the UK Manchester, Liverpool & London STN recently and booked about the same time difference in advance for fares ranging from 45-75 return. This is good value if you think how much it would cost you in juice to drive your own car to say Cork and back ... A while back I had to go to London for work.. 4 days notice and it cost the company 375 return.

If you can be flexible with your travel times, book in advance and shop around there is value to be found.. Prices are higher at times of demand such as bank holiday weekends, school holidays, certain destinations will be be subject to higher fares depending on events sports and otherwise that are taking place in whatever city and of course... Hiked up fuel prices...

Outkast_IRE

I got my flights for holidays this year cheaper than last year, pretty much same dates and locations.
That was with aer lingus.
Ryanair fly that route as well during the summer and were far dearer.

eusap

I think some company done a survey and found 6 weeks before departure to be the optimal time to book a flight at the best rate. But of course this depends on many factors like route, events etc....


Also don't forget to delete your browser cookies when checking prices on Aerlingus and Ryanair websites, if you keep checking back each day to see if the price has changed the information is stored in the cookie and used to inflate the price. On a recent trip to brussels my flight dropped by €40 by deleting the cookie

locohobo

Forgive me for been thick here,....How does one delete the cookies???

Lucena

jamo2oo9 wrote: »

I'm looking for flights to Paris and back with both Ryanair and Aer Lingus in June. Only a two day trip and it rounds up to €350 for two! Ridiculous. I remember booking a flight to London for 10c with FR about four years ago. Wish nothing changed..

Of course we all do, but seriously, considering the fuel has to be put in the plane and salaries paid, it's hardly a realistic price, is it? I know they make some money selling stuff during the flight, but you'd want to be eating a lot of sandwiches for them to turn a profit.

€350 seems like an ok price to me.

CelticRambler

FWVT wrote: »

It's something that's bugging me. Maybe we've become spoilt with the 99c fares in the past, but I've noticed that fares have increased disproportionately in the last year or so.

Yep, you/we've been spoilt by loss leaders, and having been persuaded that we really have to travel to faraway places and MO'L jetplanes are the only way to get there, he's now decided that he doesn't need to lose money on these seats any more and everyone should pay a fare that reflects the true cost of the journey.

Jamie2k9

I'm looking for flights to Paris and back with both Ryanair and Aer Lingus in June. Only a two day trip and it rounds up to €350 for two! Ridiculous. I remember booking a flight to London for 10c with FR about four years ago. Wish nothing changed..

Aer Lingus had a sale for flights in May and June and it finished a few weeks ago and that's why EI prices for those months are high, I'm sure if you wait they will have another sale.

FWVT

CelticRambler wrote: »

Yep, you/we've been spoilt by loss leaders, and having been persuaded that we really have to travel to faraway places and MO'L jetplanes are the only way to get there, he's now decided that he doesn't need to lose money on these seats any more and everyone should pay a fare that reflects the true cost of the journey.

No, Ryanair has been making profits every quarter for I don't know how long now so the fares were reflective of the true cost. Things have been different the past 12 months. I track fares to certain destinations regularly and at set times throughout the year and there haven't been the reductions you sometimes see from time to time. I think they are indeed cashing in on the lack of competition, as was pointed out earlier.

Hogzy

Booked a return Trip DUB-NYC for €320 with US Airways. Cheapest iv ever seen it. Booked start of Jan to travel end of april.

Kat1170

locohobo wrote: »

Forgive me for been thick here,....How does one delete the cookies???

Eat them all .......... :D:D







Real answer ...

Click start - Control Panel - Internet options - Browsing History -
Delete === then tick Cookies and Temporary internet files - Delete.

DenMan

Just did a quick price quote on the Aer Lingus website for Dublin to Sicily (Catania) return in May. It came to €239.88 total. I have to say I thought that was very reasonable.

Zonda999

In fairness, flights to the states do look to have come down a bit alright with the legacy carriers, especially. Was looking at them throughout the winter and you could certainly get flights to NYC for 300€ to €350. There has definitely been a surge in Short haul flights to Europe tho. Was looking at some fairly standard flights to places in Spain for June and you look to be paying €200 to €250 at least, even with Ryanair

As well my sister booked flights from ORK to Chicago via AMS at the end of may/start of June and they were only ~€480 or so, only a few weeks ago. Seemed decent value to me

basill

I think the OP has missed the various press releases in the past 1-2 years by MOL. He has said on numerous occasions that he intends to raise his fares. Alongside this you have the increase in fuel, many competitors falling by the wayside or pulling off thin routes, increasing airport charges etc. Lots of reasons why you could see "on average" fares are rising.

Deals always to be found as posted above if you are shrewd enough it would seem.

eatmyshorts

An aircraft costing $60 million+ (A330 $100 million +)....fuel at $1000+ per tonne (an A320 burns about 2.5 tonnes/hour, an A330 twice that)....insurance costs....staff salaries....extensive ongoing maintenance....airport charges....landing charges....enroute navigation charges....administration costs....training and recurrent training costs....hangar costs....

This is a business were a pilots seat for an aircraft can cost upwards of $80,000 and a wiper blade costs $1000, yet people complain because they can't fly half way across Europe and back for 10c?

Lucena

eatmyshorts wrote: »

An aircraft costing $60 million+ (A330 $100 million +)....fuel at $1000+ per tonne (an A320 burns about 2.5 tonnes/hour, an A330 twice that)....insurance costs....staff salaries....extensive ongoing maintenance....airport charges....landing charges....enroute navigation charges....administration costs....training and recurrent training costs....hangar costs....

This is a business were a pilots seat for an aircraft can cost upwards of $80,000 and a wiper blade costs $1000, yet people complain because they can't fly half way across Europe and back for 10c?

Exactly. You wouldn’t get a sausage roll for 10c, you wouldn’t drive one kilometer for 10c, I don’t know why people think it should be possible to fly from one country to another for that price.
Are people really that unaware of economic realities?

CelticRambler

FWVT wrote: »

No, Ryanair has been making profits every quarter for I don't know how long now so the fares were reflective of the true cost.

I deliberately used the phrase "lose money on those seats." If you look at RA's average fare over the corresponding period, it hasn't really gone up that much - from about 35€ to about 39€. Now that Ryanair has rammed it's "low fares" message into the communal psyche and stimulated demand for flights in a population that would never have flown with legacy carriers, a 1ct all-in fare would lose him 38.99 per seat.

Remember, too, that many of those <5€ seats were heavily subsidised by the destination airport or regional government/chamber of commerce/tourist board (up to 22€ per seat if you believe Air France's sour-grapes info) but these arrangements are coming to the end of their 3- and 5-year life and there's little enthusiasm for renewing them. Where people have built their lives around a particular connection, they'll pay the higher fare; and where they haven't, where there isn't a willingness to pay the real cost of the trip, the service is scaled right back (sometimes to zero).

CelticRambler

Lucena wrote: »

Are people really that unaware of economic realities?

Yes.

But it works both ways - they'll happily pay 80€ for a pair of trainers that only cost 5€ to produce.

homerjay2005

there is still excellent value to be had out there if people shop around, book smartly. i think more people are flying, with less airlines around, so prices for certain routes, at certain times can be high.

but overall, i think the cost of air travel, is excellent and i fly about 60 times a year, mostly with Ryanair.

Amirani

I did DUB-CRL last week and there was about 40 pax. I paid €25 one-way. They can't have been making much on that...

Lucena

homerjay2005 wrote: »

there is still excellent value to be had out there if people shop around, book smartly. i think more people are flying, with less airlines around, so prices for certain routes, at certain times can be high.

but overall, i think the cost of air travel, is excellent and i fly about 60 times a year, mostly with Ryanair.

And I feel bad flying 3 times a year!

I assume it's for work?

Jamie2k9

Aer Lingus have 25% sale for travel from 1 April to 31 October, Book by 21 March.

keroseneboy

jamo2oo9 wrote: »

I'm looking for flights to Paris and back with both Ryanair and Aer Lingus in June. Only a two day trip and it rounds up to €350 for two! Ridiculous. I remember booking a flight to London for 10c with FR about four years ago. Wish nothing changed..

However, if you look further back in history pre-Ryanair/Easyjet low cost model and went into one of Aer Lingus ticket outlets and asked for a 1 way to Paris CDG from DUB with, say, 60 days advanced purchace, all they would offer you would be a 'c' class one way fare of IR£345.

C. Müller has publicly stated at the World Air Forum 2 years ago in Amsterdam that the low cost model was unsustainable. I think he is right.

CelticRambler

Low-cost will always be sustainable, low-fares are not. The point is that Ryanair and Easyjet have changed the expectations of the public and proven that there is a section of the flying public that really really really doesn't care about their in-flight experience as long as they can get from A to B as cheaply as possible. This means there will always be a place for Michael O'Leary and his kind because the "full service" airlines can't discriminate in any practical way between high-value and budget passengers. Air France are going to try it this year, but the last time they tried to take on MO'L on their own turf, he ran them into the red pdq. Even the French can be persuaded to fly cheaply with a foreign carrier.

sydneybound

CelticRambler wrote: »

Where people have built their lives around a particular connection, they'll pay the higher fare; and where they haven't, where there isn't a willingness to pay the real cost of the trip, the service is scaled right back (sometimes to zero).

Thats exactly where I stand at the moment. Many years of commuting from the UK the Friday & Sunday evening flights are getting more and more expensive even if booked far in advance. Therefore I am adjusting my lifestyle plans and flying more often in the early hours of Saturday morning and back on Monday when flights are cheaper.

All I can say is long live competition from different airlines, a monopoly can only hike up fares.