S.R

The short answer: As long as people keep paying for them.

Herb687

Indefinitely.

Never.

They may have to cut prices for other reasons. But the price of flights within Europe or between the USA and Europe has absolutely nothing to do with the price of flights within the USA.

If I have to go to Cedar Rapids, Iowa on business or Spokane to visit family, flying to Germany is not an acceptable substitute despite the fact that it might be a lot cheaper.

bigbuy

+1
I read an article a few years back that stated that USA airline pricing would drop by an average of 17% IF foreign carriers were allowed to transport passengers from point to point within the USA.

GUWonder

I could see US domestic airfares falling by at least 5%-10% if even just Mexican carriers were allowed to provide US domestic flight service. But the US labor lobby, the US airline industry lobby and the xenophobia-selling industry would kill that effort before such market liberalization could yield any fruits. And due to a Chicago Convention, if we allowed this kind of thing to Mexico and/or Canada, then we would have to remove the cabotage restrictions for others too. I'd welcome it, but there would be the pitchfork and torch crowd running around Congress (and their office buildings) to kill this off very quickly.

BearX220

Why does any private service provider (outside of a public utility) have to "justify" its pricing? You're seeing the market at work -- in this case a limited-competition oligopoly.

And what does EU/Schengen pricing have to do with the domestic US?

If US traffic dries up, either prices will drop or (more likely) there will be yet more capacity restraint.

GUWonder

Indeed. The problem is the government's enabling of a limited-competition oligopoly and of consumers not getting the government to be a friend of the consumer.

nanyang

Would like to see more facts.

Can we derive some conclusions from this data:
http://airlines.org/data/

Providence to Edinburgh for USD109 - can that possibly be profitable for any airline operator. I assume AirAsia X must have the lowest CASK in the world or close to it - would they be able to make money?

BTW, I reckon I can guess the operator of the Providence to Edinburgh route - so here's a starting point:
https://www.norwegian.com/en/about/c...presentations/

fredman

When will it stop?

Like EVERYTHING else, when the demand slows down.
It's called 'supply and demand'.

I used to fly on a 727 from LAX to DFW all the time in the 80's with
less than 20 passengers, but not anymore.

fredman

Please show me or tell me where I can find ANY flights to:
London, Prague, Vienna, Rome or Greece for anything even remotely close to $500, let alone $109.
(or any city even close to those)
Hell, I'd even settle for near $1,000.

tmiw

I saw some LAX to LHR flights for $600ish R/T in economy recently (late October departure, early November return). Meanwhile, the direct SAN-LHR flight by BA was double that price for the same dates.

reclusive46

I just wish Canadian flights were cheaper, It's often cheaper to fly to London (UK) than it is other Canadian cities.

Enigma368

I think the EU comparison is fair as you are comparing two markets with people who have similar spending power and where staff and other costs are similar(ruling out those as factors). Distances are a bit less in Europe but I really don't think that is one of the main reasons for the difference.

Europe only became cheap for air travel when the EU made strong efforts to de-regulate the market/industry. From what I have read, the Mexican government took similar steps in Mexico. Same in SE Asia.

Many people are saying that the US airlines are just charging what people will pay - of course no one is arguing that they should not charge whatever people will pay - the bigger question is what can be done to entice more competition and/or liberalise the market so that prices come down. As Spirit and Frontier grow, it will hopefully help too.

It happened in the EU and I believe it could happen in the US. The OP's question is a reasonable one.

There is absolutely no question in my mind that mile for mile, flights are much cheaper in Europe than the US or (especially) Canada. Canada has to be one of the most expensive air markets in the world..

Enigma368

I think income levels or even staff costs have very little to do with this. In Central America e.g. Guatemala/Panama/Hondurus, where average income levels are much lower than Mexico, flights are way way more expensive than Mexico, and usually even more expensive than the US.

The difference is to do with market liberation allowing low cost airlines to provide competition. The Mexican govt took steps to allow this to happen in the 90s. I believe Colombia is starting to do the same in their country.

LarryJ

It seems pretty simple to me.

If the airplanes are full, which they are, then the fares are not too high.

Fares will go down when demand drops or supply increases.

Competition leads to lower prices because competition increases supply.

paperwastage

https://www.kayak.com/explore/NYC

https://www.kayak.com/explore/LAX

(or use google.com/flight 's explore function). of course, a lot of the cheap flights are LCC, which aren't as prevalent for domestic flights