It’s no secret that air travel has gotten much cheaper in the past decade than previous years; recently we’ve been able to get flights to European destinations for no more than a cross country train ticket. Obviously consumers jumped at the chance to explore more for less cash and within no time we were jetting all over the world safe in the knowledge that there’s less cost to be suffered for travelling by air.
This trend has seen many new flight operators crop up; the so called budget airlines like EasyJet and RyanAir have made a killing in the industry putting heavyweights such as British Airways and Britannia in their shadow. Unfortunately now the flights industry has a dark cloud hanging above it after a recent deal between two airlines that may spell the end for cheap flights as we know them.
American operators Delta and Northwest Airlines recently shook on a merger that means that it could bring about an age where major airlines could become large enough to start getting back the money they lost out to the cheap flights airlines, a figure estimated to be $29 Billion since 2001.
It isn’t just the marriage of these two companies that is the problem; it is the actual carrying out of this deal that has many consumer groups worried. It means that the other flights companies that are faltering may cut similar deals with each other. This would equate to less routes, fuller and fewer planes and most likely: Higher airfares.
Whilst it isn’t set in stone it seems highly likely if companies want to recoup some of that $29 Billion, which is estimated to increase if oil remains at $111 per barrel. A researcher at AirlineForecasts predicts that the major airlines stand to lose a further $9 billion this year alone, a figure that could force companies as big as American Airlines to consider bankruptcy! Recently three smaller flights companies have filed for bankruptcy and fell victim to the rising costs of running an airline.
It’s clear that in these days of heightened oil prices and “greener” mindsets that air travel will fall victim to higher costs if only to act as a diversionary tactic, how effective this will prove is hard to tell as most people have been bitten by the travel bug and may already have a list of places they want to visit regardless of cheap flights becoming less and less likely.
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