When will the fallen price of oil, now below $70, show in the price of Airfare?

treatgood

Over the past year the price of Airline Tickets and the additional costs leved on customers has been steadily increasing, new addtional charges have been implimented, such as fuel surcharges, Checked in Luggage charges, charges for blankets and pillows not forgetting having to pay for food and drink during flights, all these addtional costs have been blamed on the high fuel costs.

In the past couple of months the cost of oil has spiralled from a high of $170 to below $70 and still falling, the question is: will the Airlines now start to reduce the price of Airline tickets and begin to remove these additional charged customer have had to pay over the past year? When will they put customers first?

moonrakerz

They will reduce their prices when they have taken all the oil at a price they fixed months ago to try and keep their price hikes down !

cundall

the ticket price will not go down but the fuel surcharge has been dropped (reduced) by many airlines.

lesley1960

Airlines fix the price of their fuel for months in advance so they are tied into paying the higher prices for a while yet

LB1985

Bear in mind also that airlines buy fuel in US Dollars and the £ is the weakest it's been relative to the $ for quite some time - so although the oil price has come down, the exchange rates, together with the prices airlines have hedged their prices for, mean that the airlines are still paying more than you would think.

treatgood

Thanks guys,

I see what you are saying.
Lets hope the oil price stays low, so we the travellers benefit also from the below $70 oil price.
I know there's an argument to be made about the environment, but some people need to travel around to make a living.

sturll

Lets not even pretend that the airlines are going to reverse their fuel surcharges and all the other charges that have sneaked in that we as air pax have now come accustomed to.

Ill eat my monitor if this happens.

bagand96

I doubt ticket prices will drop due to oil coming down. It has been a factor, but the airline industry is facing a downturn generally, and a lot of airlines are fighting for survival. The oil prices dropping will help, but what comes with that is the "recession" we may well be entering, which brings new challenges (if people are tight on money, flying will be the first thing they stop doing....)

Since the last downturn after 9/11 the industry has had a boom time, and we've all enjoyed the knock down prices we can fly at (you can fly to Spain for cheaper than you can go 50 miles on a train). However the bargain basement prices and cuthroat competition is catching up with the industry (Silverjet, Zoom, XL etc)

Like for like flying is still cheaper today than its ever been, but the airlines aren't charities. Even the fittest are finding it hard, Ryanair are parking 20 planes this winter because they'll loose money flying them.....

Frugal_Moose

bagand96 wrote: »

I doubt ticket prices will drop due to oil coming down. It has been a factor, but the airline industry is facing a downturn generally, and a lot of airlines are fighting for survival. The oil prices dropping will help, but what comes with that is the "recession" we may well be entering, which brings new challenges (if people are tight on money, flying will be the first thing they stop doing....)

Since the last downturn after 9/11 the industry has had a boom time, and we've all enjoyed the knock down prices we can fly at (you can fly to Spain for cheaper than you can go 50 miles on a train). However the bargain basement prices and cuthroat competition is catching up with the industry (Silverjet, Zoom, XL etc)

Like for like flying is still cheaper today than its ever been, but the airlines aren't charities. Even the fittest are finding it hard, Ryanair are parking 20 planes this winter because they'll loose money flying them.....

Good points made but from a scheduled airline point of view surely it makes sense to fill the plane up with lower fares than take less money by keeping the prices high? They would surely then expect to get more sales in the form of drinks/snacks/gifts etc.

My family and I go skiing to New Hampshire each February and this year the airline tickets alone are up £75 each person, we always go on a scheduled flight as there are no charters. I am holding off purchasing the flights in the hope that the fuel surcharges (currently £90 for BA) come down in the next couple of months to save me some dough.

moneysavingmatthew

Frugal_Moose wrote: »

Good points made but from a scheduled airline point of view surely it makes sense to fill the plane up with lower fares than take less money by keeping the prices high? They would surely then expect to get more sales in the form of drinks/snacks/gifts etc.

My family and I go skiing to New Hampshire each February and this year the airline tickets alone are up £75 each person, we always go on a scheduled flight as there are no charters. I am holding off purchasing the flights in the hope that the fuel surcharges (currently £90 for BA) come down in the next couple of months to save me some dough.

Fares are not coming down any time soon - airlines will simply cut services and park aircraft in the desert if they can't fill with passengers at a decent price. Even 747-400 aircraft are now bordering on economical when full on mid-haul routes to US-East Coast They way the $ is going against the £ if you see a decent price I would book it now.

We may see oil as low as $50 but even at that price the old days of cheap fares are gone....

Frugal_Moose

Frugal_Moose wrote: »

My family and I go skiing to New Hampshire each February and this year the airline tickets alone are up £75 each person, we always go on a scheduled flight as there are no charters. I am holding off purchasing the flights in the hope that the fuel surcharges (currently £90 for BA) come down in the next couple of months to save me some dough.

I think it had more to do with credit crunch than the price of oil but BA are having a sale and I managed to get within £20 of last years fare. The Bonus being we went with American last year (who are frankly shocking) and I am hoping BA are as good as when we last went with them.

We also have the (dubious?) pleasure of going from Terminal 5 :eek: