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Date Published: 21/02/2022
ARCHIVED - Holidaymakers face 25 per cent hike in flight costs
Rising jet fuel costs could force airlines to pass this cost onto their customers
Covid-weary holidaymakers are facing another setback as airline tickets are set to skyrocket in the coming months thanks to the record rise in the price of oil, by far the largest outlay for carriers. With flight costs set to increase by around 5% per month until the end of June, this is a hefty 25% hike between now and the summer, an outlay which will prove too prohibitive for many.
According to the current projections, a family of four travelling from London to the Spanish Islands during the August mid-term will have to fork out £600 for flights alone – that’s an extra £120 before any of the other holiday expenses are taken into account.
According to travel booking app Hopper, the most substantial increases will be seen between now and the end of March, with airlines struggling to reconcile the extortionate oil charges, which have risen by almost 70% over the past 12 months.
According to independent aviation consultant Chris Smith, “airlines will pass that on to the consumer,” but John Strickland, who heads aviation consultancy JLS, is more hopeful, insisting that operators will be slow to further burden their customers.
However, many passengers have already noticed an increase in flights, and with inflation affecting everything from groceries to electricity and fuel, most of the aviation experts are warning that holidaymakers will almost certainly feel the pinch this spring and summer. In fact, earlier this month Ryanair chief Michael O’ Leary predicted that air fares would be significantly higher in 2022 than they were pre-pandemic.
The UK boss of Air France-KLM last week warned that higher air fares had become “quite unavoidable” and that passengers should prepare themselves to pay more for their trips this year due to rising fuel and airport costs.
“I think there is an expectation that airline tickets could become more costly and I think the advice we have for customers is simply to plan earlier to be able to avoid those price increases,” Fahmi Mahjoub concluded.
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