A reporter from China Business News learned from the ticket agency today that it has received a notice from a domestic airline that it will lower the standard of fuel surcharges for passenger transportation on domestic routes starting from January 5 next year.
The adjusted levy standard is that for adult passengers: a fuel surcharge of 40 yuan per passenger on routes less than 800 kilometers (inclusive), and 80 yuan per passenger on routes longer than 800 kilometers.
It means that it is 20 yuan and 40 yuan lower than the current fuel surcharge standard.
According to the previous practice, other airlines will also notify the platforms and agents one after another to make the same adjustments to the fuel surcharge.
From soaring to downgrading
The last time fuel surcharges were adjusted for domestic routes was in September. At that time, the adjusted levy standard was, for adult passengers: a fuel surcharge of RMB 60 per passenger for routes of less than 800 kilometers (inclusive), and RMB 120 per passenger for routes of more than 800 kilometers .
In the following three months, the fuel surcharge standards for domestic routes have not been adjusted.
The fuel surcharge has been lowered again this time, which is related to the continuous drop in international jet fuel prices.
Since the beginning of this year, international oil prices have been on a roller coaster. At the beginning of the year, the price soared to close to US$140/barrel. Near the end of 2022, it suddenly fell to around US$70/barrel, with a volatility of nearly 100%.
On November 28, the international oil price fell to a new low in nearly 11 months. The main contract of WTI crude oil futures once fell to 73.60 US dollars / barrel, and the main contract of Brent crude oil dropped to 80.81 US dollars / barrel in the intraday session.
The roller coaster trend of oil prices has also caused the fuel surcharges of domestic routes to walk out of a parabolic curve throughout the year.
In the first half of this year, the fuel surcharge on domestic routes soared from 0 yuan to breaking the historical record in just half a year. Yuan, fully turned 10 times.
In the second half of the year, it was a downward trend, but the reduction in fuel surcharges still did not cover the increase in the first half of the year.
Ticket prices on New Year's Day increased by 30% year-on-year
The reduction of the fuel surcharge is also expected to help the further recovery of the aviation market.
The reporter learned from multiple platforms that with the centralized release of favorable policies at the end of the year and the gradual end of the first wave of infection peaks in some core cities, the inter-provincial travel market will be active during the New Year's Day holiday in 2023 due to the return of passengers returning to their hometowns during the Spring Festival travel ahead of schedule.
According to the Flight Steward APP, during the New Year’s Day holiday in 2023, the average price of domestic flight tickets is 861.5 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 34.92% compared with the New Year’s Day in 2022; the top 5 routes with the highest average price of domestic air tickets during the New Year’s Day holiday in 2023 are Beijing-Urumqi, Beijing-Sanya, Urumqi-Xiamen, Beijing-Shenzhen, Beijing-Chengdu.
The same journey travel data also shows that inter-provincial travel orders accounted for nearly 50% of the train ticket orders for New Year's Day holiday travel, and the average price of air ticket orders also increased by 32% compared with the same period last year.
In this regard, Tongcheng Research Institute analyzed that the average price of air ticket orders has risen, on the one hand, due to the increase in travel market demand, and on the other hand, because the average travel radius of people has also increased significantly compared with last year.
Among the train ticket orders, the demand for travel around the local area is strong, but the orders for inter-provincial travel have increased significantly, accounting for nearly 50%.
Among them, the routes from the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta provinces and cities to the southwest, northwest, and central provinces and cities are relatively popular, which is basically the same as the direction of return passenger flow in previous years.
Qunar data also shows that since December 19, with the first wave of "Yangkang" returning to normal life, the number of air ticket bookings departing during the New Year's Day has also begun to increase day by day, with a single-day increase of 30%. Guangzhou has become the first region to start inter-provincial travel.
In this regard, Guo Lechun, deputy director of Qunar Big Data Research Institute, analyzed that the growth and changes in the bookings of air tickets and train tickets in the source of tourists reflect the recovery of urban consumption capacity.
Judging from the current New Year's Day ticket booking situation, first-tier and new first-tier cities are the first to enter the fast lane of recovery.
On the Qunar platform, the bookings of air tickets and train tickets departing from Beijing took the lead in increasing. Since December 23, the growth rate of bookings departing from Chengdu, Guangzhou, and Shanghai has accelerated.
According to Guo Lechun's analysis, the rapid growth period of air ticket bookings in Shenzhen, Hangzhou, and Chongqing will begin after December 25.