The market is picking up, farewell to the "cabbage price"

　　Our reporter Pan Fuda

　　With the easing of the epidemic in Beijing, Shanghai and other places, the domestic civil aviation market has shown a recovery momentum.

However, travelers who plan to travel have found that the "cabbage price" air tickets with a 20% discount and a 30% discount are basically unavailable. The continuous increase in fuel surcharges, coupled with the approaching of the traditional summer travel season, air ticket prices are gradually returning to the normal curve.

　　The average price of air tickets has increased significantly

　　On the evening of June 15, Beijing white-collar Wang Zhou boarded a flight from Hangzhou to Beijing.

"The price of this flight at the same time in early April was still 380 yuan including tax, and now the ticket price excluding tax is 1,000 yuan." He showed the order for this trip to reporters: in addition to the 1,000 yuan air ticket price, Including the 140 yuan fuel surcharge and the 50 yuan airport construction fee, he spent a total of 1,190 yuan, and the overall price was three times that in early April, of which the fuel surcharge was 40 yuan more expensive than the 100 yuan in early April.

　　In Wangzhou's view, although the epidemic has led to a reduction in flights between the two places, there are more summer tourists, and the fares 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 all full of passengers.

　　"Student parties can't afford air tickets", "The price has risen overnight", "Machine construction and fuel costs are too expensive"... On social platforms, many netizens are hotly discussing the topic of air ticket price increases.

The intuitive feeling of passengers has been confirmed by industry data: the average ticket price of domestic passenger flights provided by Feichangzhun to reporters shows that the average ticket price of domestic passenger flights from February to April (excluding fuel costs for machinery construction) was 560 yuan respectively. , 494 yuan and 564 yuan.

Entering May, the average price of air tickets in the first half of the year was the same as before, and after May 20, the price rose to 800 to 850 yuan.

　　However, according to the big data of the Qunar platform, with the recent increase in the number of flights, the average price paid for air tickets has gradually decreased since the Dragon Boat Festival.

Lan Xiang, director of the Qunar Big Data Research Institute, analyzed that the number of summer air ticket bookings has increased significantly, but with the increase in the number of flights, the average price of summer air tickets in 2022 will drop compared to the average air ticket price in 2019.

　　Fares return to normal levels

　　In response to the phenomenon of air ticket price increases, the relevant person in charge of the Civil Aviation Administration recently responded publicly that the current domestic airline fares are mainly market-regulated prices, and airlines can independently determine specific fares according to market supply and demand conditions.

Previously, due to the serious shortage of effective demand in the air transport market, the supply and demand relationship was seriously distorted, and the average fare of domestic routes was much lower than the normal price level.

　　"The lower the air ticket price, the more blood loss in the industry." Qi Qi, an expert in civil aviation, believes that although the lower the air ticket price, the better from the perspective of consumers, the air ticket price of cabbage is actually unfavorable and unsustainable for the development of the entire industry. .

A number of people in the civil aviation industry revealed that the previous discounts on air tickets were too large, and the airline company recently "recovered" the corresponding discounts and the prices returned to normal levels.

　　The reporter noticed that the reason why many passengers complained about the price increase of air tickets is that the fuel surcharge collection standard has been raised since June 5. After the adjustment, the fuel surcharge has increased by 7 times compared with the beginning of the year. For adult passengers, routes below 800 kilometers (inclusive) Each passenger will be charged a fuel surcharge of 80 yuan, and each passenger on routes over 800 kilometers will be charged 140 yuan.

　　Cheng Chaogong, chief researcher of Tongcheng Research Institute, believes that with the accelerated resumption of work and production in Beijing and Shanghai, and the accelerated recovery of inter-regional travel, the recovery of travel demand and the increase in fuel surcharges are superimposed on each other, driving air ticket prices to rise further.

　　Average daily flight volume increased by 30%

　　At the end of May, the Civil Aviation Administration and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued a phased implementation of the financial subsidy policy for the operation of domestic passenger flights.

There is a view that the increase in air ticket prices may be related to the subsidy policy, but in fact, there is no basis for the statement that "airlines raise ticket prices and reduce passenger load factors to obtain more subsidies".

　　Since the beginning of this year, the passenger load factor of civil aviation has generally been at a low level. The average passenger load factor from January to April was 65.0%. The passenger load factor in the first week of the implementation of the subsidy policy was 55.5%, which has not yet reached the level of 75%. "The passenger load factor is controlled at 75%. There is no basis for the claim that follows to obtain subsidies.

Moreover, according to the policy, the subsidy is the part of the actual income from the supplementary flight that is not enough to cover the variable costs such as aviation fuel, aviation material consumption, and pilot hourly fees. Increasing the fare will increase the income and reduce the loss, and the amount of the subsidy will be reduced. In principle, there is no possibility that airlines will be subsidized by raising fares.

　　Civil aviation expert Lin Zhijie believes that the subsidy policy will help restore the order of the civil aviation market. Under the circumstance of high fuel costs, the recovery of air ticket prices will effectively reduce the probability of flight cancellations and changes, allowing passengers to travel with more certainty.

　　With the improvement of the national epidemic situation, more tourists have taken the step of traveling.

According to Feiyou Civil Aviation Weekly News, in the week from June 6 to 12, the average daily flight of civil aviation was 6,244, a month-on-month increase of 30%; the average daily passenger volume reached 626,000, a month-on-month increase of 35%.

　　The Civil Aviation Administration said that the aviation market is gradually picking up, and air ticket prices will gradually return to normal levels.