Airlines Retain Fuel Surcharges
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It comes as no surprise. The added prices for air travel will remain:
“FORT WORTH, Texas — U.S. airlines have no immediate plans to reduce fuel surcharges they tack onto the price of a ticket. That’s even with recent decreases of oil and fuel prices.
Most carriers have topped their fare hikes with increases in fuel surcharges, ranging as high as $170 per round trip in the United States and more for international flights.”
link: US airlines not planning to cut fuel surcharges
It seems disingenuous that a fuel charge remains when the price of oil is dropping. Airlines have been struggling for years. However, this rising costs of a barrel of oil seems to be a rationale for eliminating services and finding creative ways to levy additional travel charges.
It seems that the airlines think that the rate of air travel will remain a constant. However, the data for automobile use have shown that the consumer can adjust and limit road travel. When the flying public reaches the point that the cost of air travel, with all its added charges, is prohibitive, then the airlines will be find that there are dire financial consequences to short term gains.
Catherine Forsythe
One Comment
Walkabout
September 11th, 2008
at 12:37pm
With all the focus on how the airlines are fighting high fuel costs with surcharges and by charging for checking bags and pricing individual items a la carte, how is it that the in-flight magazines have flown under the radar? Passengers pay for them too, indirectly.
Magazines that weight from a half to three-quarters of a pound are still being stuffed into the seat pockets. That amounts to hundreds of thousands of pounds for each airline, each day. The fuel cost spread over a year is enormous. But the airlines keep the magazines even though I hardly ever see anyone reading them when I fly.
But don’t be fooled by the standard argument that the magazines pay for themselves. Maybe they just pay for the publishers to make them. An article www.abcnews.go.com) that recently appeared presents what appears to be a crooked argument in support of the in-flight magazine. But a little analysis shows big holes that are filled by self-serving information. There are no data to support the claims. In fact, who says that passengers still love the glossies? Where are the quotes from passengers? Nope, just quotes from industry insiders.
What the article really says is that it is the advertisers, not necessarily the passengers, who love the magazines. Of course! And who makes this statement and why? Pace Communications who publishes four of these magazines and receives huge ad revenue, that’s who. Where is the evidence that “well-heeled” passengers spend “an average of 26 minutes per issue.” Yeah, right. Well-heeled? Isn’t it in Pace Communications’ interest to make such an unprovable claim so that advertisers bolster ad sales and profits handsomely in these publications that are heavy in bad advertisements? Did ABC News just takes the statement at face value?
No, passengers are forced to pay in the way of extra hidden ticket costs for the pleasure of being advertised to through these “ad-heavy” magazines. I would bet that the hidden cost is much higher than what a comparable magazine would cost on the newsstand. But the benefits go to the publishing company and the advertisers. The airlines are pimping themselves out. And passengers are forced to indirectly pay for these magazines. It might be that the airlines pay more to distribute and fly them than is off-set by any share in the revenue. Hmmm. I only cringe to think how taxpayers may some day have to float magazines in a poorly run airline industry when the government has to step in to do the bailout.
The future is in Internet access and soon all the airlines will offer it. For me, I would rather pay openly for something I want (the Internet) than be charged a hidden fee for something I don’t (a lame magazine).