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A “Competitive Atmosphere” in the Air Travel Industry
With an ever increasing competitive atmosphere in the air travel industry, a number of airline companies, particularly those who focus on sales of budget flights, are making prices even cheaper then ever. As affordability grows ever more important when travelling by air.
This spirit of competition means that many airliners are creating ever more elaborate packages, all in deals, or perks, to give them that cutting edge to their air travellers needs.
Even without the increase of perks or packages to appeal to customers, airline analysts have noted that there has been a decrease across the board when it comes to standard fares, regardless of if they were premier or budget orientated airliners.
It seems that majority of people are finally not having to use their wholly depleted savings accounts and are using their current accounts instead. This is perhaps down to how the ‘recession’ is slowly moving to a distant memory and people are regaining their confidence in spending again.
A foreign airline analyst concurred with the local analyst that affordability of air travel was a big issue then (before budget flights were available) but not any more.
The analyst went on to say that areas like Asia and Australia (perhaps because so many people people are ditching the “English” way of life, for a much more laid back one) are becoming dynamic and popular destination points for business or pleasure, and the airlines were responding to the strong demand for flights to those areas.
“The cheaper flights have also helped to accelerate economic growth,” said the foreign analyst.
A shift in attitude for how customers and fares are handled is also perking sales. Instead of the business model, where the attempt is to get customers to pay more for travel to a ‘fill every plane’ plan, making sure that the maximum seats are filled up for every flight.
Occupancy rates are a major concern for airliners, particularly budget ones, and they must make sure that their occupancy rate remains in the 85% to 90% region each flight, to remain profitable.
“It’s a volume game. Ensuring bums on seats helps make sure the airlines’ cash flows are healthy and sustainable. As a result of this strategy, more people can fly at a cheaper cost,” he added.
In fact, such an emphasis is place on occupancy that its not unheard of for budget airlines to offer various low one-way fares or even free flights to specific destinations during the slower less active times of the year. Its also fairly difficult to predict, as these airlines would have to calculated the numbers beforehand on how many seats are unoccupied for their flights in any given year, before they start to give away free or discounted flights.
“There is negligible cost or loss in giving discounted or free flights and it’s good for promotion and branding. The airline would not benefit by having vacant seats on flights anyway, and the person getting a free flight would likely book a return-ticket via the same airline,” he said.
Futhermore, the analyst went on to say in addition of incentives the budgeting airlines are thinking of smaller additional revenue streams such as charging for onboard products and other services like food and drinks on its flights.
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International Air Travel For Pets
Although people can be assured that flying remains one of the safest forms of travel, the same cannot be said for our pets. In a rather depressing piece of news earlier this month, the conditions that endanger animals during travel became apparent, when seven puppies died after a flight connecting Tulsa to Chicago. Heat stroke is suspected to be a major factor in the deaths as record high temperatures continue each year across America.
If you have the savings accounts in place - you probably should look at taking a pet on holiday, it could be fun and stem any kind of holiday pain with the other half!
