WITH the Iran war bumping up the cost of fuel, some airlines have already revealed their plans to increase their ticket prices this summer.
Short-haul flights from the UK to European holiday hotspots are set to rise, according to information that The i Paper has received from experts.
“If this war continues beyond March, then I do see EU airlines starting to hike fares across the board in advance of the summer season to popular destinations as demand gravitates away from the Middle East,” said Saj Ahmad, chief analyst at StrategicAero Research in conversation with The i Paper.
These comments come after numerous airlines beyond Europe have already increased their charges.
Cathay Pacific, Qantas Airways, Thai Airways and Air New Zealand are all taking action with the latter cutting 5% of its flights, around 1,100 trips, through early May.
Typically airlines use hedging contracts to protect themselves from sudden jet fuel price rises but aviation experts are still saying that it is ‘very possible’ that continuous increases in oil prices will end up affecting the prices that passengers pay ‘everywhere’.
For Ryanair, however, the company’s hedged contracts will prevent rising oil prices from affecting their ‘low fares’ according to their chief executive Michael O’Leary.
When disruption occurs far away from the UK, changes to airspace still impacts flights with airlines having to reroute and change their flight times, said Richard Vilton, the chief executive of Emu Analytics.
“For short-haul leisure routes to destinations like Greece and Spain, the impact is often indirect. Airlines may adjust schedules, add small buffers, or redeploy aircraft across their network to maintain reliability,” Vilton added.
While Vilton insists that airlines are doing all they can to ‘minimise disruption and reduce the inconvenience to passengers’, Skyscanner’s travel expert Laura Linsay has said that ‘we may see some carriers increase fares to offset increased costs’.
She too however emphasised that ‘most airlines will do everything they can to price attractively to stay ahead of the competition’.
Despite these attempts it seems that prices are set to rise in coming weeks with James Noel-Beswick, head of commodities at the market intelligence firm Sparta Commodities, predicting a 30% to 50% addition to ticket costs this summer when speaking to The i Paper.
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