Market warms up, air tickets bid farewell to "cabbage price"
2022-06-17
As the epidemic situation in Beijing, Shanghai and other places eased, the domestic civil aviation market showed a warming trend. However, the passengers who plan to travel find that the "cabbage price" ticket with a discount of 20% and 30% has basically not been found. With the continuous increase of fuel surcharge and the approaching peak season of traditional summer travel, the ticket price is gradually returning to the normal curve. Average ticket price increased significantly month on month On the evening of June 15, Beijing white-collar Wang Zhou took the flight from Hangzhou to Beijing. "At the beginning of April, the price of the same segment of this flight was 380 yuan including tax. Now the fare excluding tax is 1000 yuan." He told the reporter the order for this trip: in addition to the ticket price of 1000 yuan, plus the fuel surcharge of 140 yuan and the airport construction fee of 50 yuan, he spent a total of 1190 yuan. The overall price was three times that at the beginning of April, of which the fuel surcharge was 40 yuan more expensive than the 100 yuan at the beginning of April. In Wang Zhou's view, although the epidemic has led to a reduction in flights between the two places, there are more tourists in the summer, and ticket prices have risen as a result. Sitting in the aisle of the cabin, he noticed that the first six rows of business class and economy class were full of passengers. "The student party can't afford to buy air tickets", "the price has increased overnight", "the cost of machinery construction and fuel is too expensive"... On the social platform, many netizens hotly discussed the topic of increasing the price of air tickets. The intuitive feeling of passengers is confirmed by industry data: according to the average ticket price data of domestic passenger flights provided by FLCC to reporters, the average ticket price of domestic passenger flights from February to April (excluding the fuel cost of mechanical construction) is 560 yuan, 494 yuan and 564 yuan respectively. In May, the average price of air tickets in the first half of the year was the same as before. After May 20, the price rose to 800 yuan to 850 yuan. However, according to qunar platform big data, with the recent increase in the number of flights, the average ticket payment price has gradually decreased since the Dragon Boat Festival. Lanxiang, President of qunar big data research institute, analyzed that the number of summer ticket reservations increased significantly, but with the increase of the number of flights, the average price of summer ticket in 2022 will decrease compared with that in 2019. Ticket prices return to normal In response to the phenomenon of ticket price increase, the relevant person in charge of the Civil Aviation Administration recently publicly responded that at present, the ticket prices of domestic routes are mainly adjusted by the market, and the airlines independently determine the specific ticket prices according to the market supply and demand. Previously, due to the serious shortage of effective demand in the air transport market and the serious distortion of the relationship between supply and demand, the average ticket price of domestic routes was far lower than the normal price level. "The lower the ticket price, the more the industry loses blood." Qi Qi, a civil aviation expert, believes that although the lower the ticket price from the perspective of consumers, the better, the ticket price of cabbage is actually unfavorable and unsustainable for the development of the whole industry. Many people in the civil aviation industry disclosed that the previous discount on air tickets was too large. Recently, the airline company "recovered" the corresponding discount, and the price returned to the normal level. The reporter noted that the reason why many passengers roast about the increase in ticket prices is that the fuel surcharge has been raised since June 5. After the adjustment, the fuel surcharge has increased seven times compared with the beginning of the year. For adult passengers, 80 yuan fuel surcharge is charged per passenger on routes below 800 km (inclusive), and 140 yuan per passenger on routes above 800 km. Chengchaogong, chief researcher of Tongcheng Research Institute, believes that as Beijing and Shanghai accelerate the resumption of work and production, cross regional travel accelerates to recover, the recovery of travel demand and the increase of fuel surcharges are superimposed on each other, pushing ticket prices further upward. Average daily flight volume increased by 30% At the end of May, CAAC and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued the financial subsidy policy for the phased implementation of domestic passenger flight operation. There is a view that the increase in ticket prices may be related to the subsidy policy, but in fact, the statement that "Airlines raise ticket prices and lower the occupancy rate to obtain more subsidies" is not based. Since this year, the passenger seat rate of civil aviation has generally been at a low level. The average passenger seat rate from January to April is 65.0%. The passenger seat rate in the first week of the implementation of the subsidy policy is 55.5%, which has not yet reached the 75% level. The argument that "controlling the passenger seat rate below 75% to obtain subsidies" is groundless. Moreover, according to the policy, the subsidy is the part that the actual income of the supplementary flight is not enough to make up for the variable costs such as aviation fuel, aviation material consumption and pilot hourly fee. Raising the ticket price will increase the income, reduce the loss and reduce the amount of subsidy. In terms of subsidy principle, it is not possible for airlines to increase the subsidy by raising the ticket price. Linzhijie, a civil aviation expert, believes that the subsidy policy is conducive to the restoration of civil aviation market order. In the case of high fuel costs, the restoration of ticket prices will effectively reduce the probability of flight cancellation and change, and give passengers more certainty in their travel. With the improvement of the national epidemic situation, more and more passengers have taken steps to travel. According to the weekly report of Feiyou civil aviation, in the week from June 6 to 12, the daily average number of civil aviation flights was 6244, up 30% month on month; The average daily passenger volume reached 626000 person times, up 35% month on month. The Civil Aviation Administration said that the aviation market is gradually warming up, and ticket prices are bound to gradually return to the normal level. The Civil Aviation Administration will also further strengthen the monitoring of domestic airline ticket prices to effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. (Xinhua News Agency)
Edit:He Chuanning Responsible editor:Su Suiyue
Source:Beijing Daily
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