Crazy Flight prices

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johnnyb47

Guru
Location
Wales
Hi,
Every morning i give a young Bulgarian lady a lift to work. Next week she's going back home to see her family, and we got talking about flight prices.
I was shocked to hear how cheap her flights where. £11 pounds there and £9 back. It works out around £3 an hour on a plane. At those prices i think I'll book myself a holiday a find a cheap hotel when i get there 🤔
 

Cycleops

Legendary Member
Location
Accra, Ghana
Incredible. Maybe she could help you out on the accommodation for your holiday ;)
 

mudsticks

Obviously an Aubergine
Hi,
Every morning i give a young Bulgarian lady a lift to work. Next week she's going back home to see her family, and we got talking about flight prices.
I was shocked to hear how cheap her flights where. £11 pounds there and £9 back. It works out around £3 an hour on a plane. At those prices i think I'll book myself a holiday a find a cheap hotel when i get there 🤔

There's no tax on aviation fuel, so prices don't in any way reflect the carbon cost.

But it's tricky being that killjoy who says we need to stop flying about so much.
 
Good morning,

In the middle of last year the EU approved something like a 35euro per seat state subsidy for charter flights to Bulgaria paid for by the Bulgarian Tourist Board. Offer cheap flights and then take the money from the tourists in pubs, restaurants etc.

I am not sure how this has developed, whether it is still available or is applicable to the flights under discussion but it does sound like someone somewhere is subsidizing the fare.

Jet fuel is around £1.5 per gallon, so the £20 ticket price would be around 13-14 gallons for a 3,000 mile round trip, which would be around 222 mpg. Given that the typical fuel use of a full jet plane is in range of 45-75 mpg/passenger there is clearly so losses that need to be recovered, especially as we haven't even considered crew, plane and maintenance costs.

Clearly some extra revenue for the flight would be expected from passengers paying more, food&drink and possibly cargo.

Bye

Ian
 

Chris S

Legendary Member
Location
Birmingham
Hi,
Every morning i give a young Bulgarian lady a lift to work. Next week she's going back home to see her family, and we got talking about flight prices.
I was shocked to hear how cheap her flights where. £11 pounds there and £9 back. It works out around £3 an hour on a plane. At those prices i think I'll book myself a holiday a find a cheap hotel when i get there 🤔

But has she added on all the extras?


View: https://youtu.be/ZAg0lUYHHFc
 

CanucksTraveller

Macho Business Donkey Wrestler
Location
Hertfordshire
There's a good amount of smoke and mirrors going on with her "11 pounds" ticket there, the (unavoidable) UK departure tax alone is a bare minimum of 13 to 26 pounds for that distance depending on band, and you'll most likely have an airport tax on top, so someone is certainly subsidising the ticket to a good degree. The lowest that a UK based carrier can do a ticket for is usually about thirty odd pounds, and that's a loss leader.

I fly regularly for work on an ID00 ticket (i.e. zero fare, arranged between companies, and the operating carrier airline makes literally not a cent out of it), but they do naturally ask me to cover the taxes and airport fees and it works out at about US$ 87 each leg, that's for short haul, ex-UK.

There's really no such thing as an 11 pounds ticket. Someone is subsidising it, whether that's the Bulgarian government or the airline stinging you with hidden charges.
 

le_al_khemista

Active Member
Location
London
Its disgraceful that prices dont reflect the needless environmental damage they cause.

I think the answer is in making less environmentally damaging forms of travel (i.e. trains, ferries, etc) more affordable and convenient.

A progressive taxation on flying could also help but not the easiest thing to implement.

It is unrealistic expecting people not to travel but a bit like meat consumption there needs to be a significant reduction but this won't happen without realistic incentives and alternatives.
 

annedonnelly

Girl from the North Country
There's no tax on aviation fuel, so prices don't in any way reflect the carbon cost.

But it's tricky being that killjoy who says we need to stop flying about so much.
I don't mind being a killjoy :laugh:

But the flights we need to cut back on aren't the people occasionally visiting family or having an annual holiday. It's the frequent flyers.

And as for William Shatner!!! He's off my Christmas card list!
 

Ming the Merciless

There is no mercy
Location
Inside my skull
It is unrealistic expecting people not to travel

I don’t think it unrealistic to expect them not to fly so frequently. We didn’t take a single flight when growing up as kids. Not a single family flight.

Flying regularly, outside of work, is a relatively recent phenomenon and by no means inevitable for the majority of us.
 
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mudsticks

Obviously an Aubergine
I don’t think it unrealistic to expect them not to fly so frequently. We didn’t take a single flight when growing up as kids. Not a single family flight.

Flying regularly, outside of work, is a relatively recent phenomenon and by no means inevitable for the majority of us.

Yup

Of course it will vary person to person.
Some people have family spread across the globe, or occasionally it's 'vital' for work or other reasons.

I've not flown since the early nineties.

I've had brilliant holidays though.
The train can get you all over Europe.
Then you can walk or cycle..

Or bus or even hire a car if you have to .
 

Ming the Merciless

There is no mercy
Location
Inside my skull
Or bus or even hire a car if you have to .

My September break was train and bike. My November break will be train , cottage and walking or bus when there. We cannot cover the distance by car in anywhere near the train time. Plus train more relaxing.

I am on the verge of going car less. I’ve worked out that the cost of just insurance and VED is equivalent to 3 weeks car hire. If you do one way car hires where that works best. You are looking at 10 trips a year assuming you don’t use a car at destination.

I definitely feel we need to be moving away from the days of personal car ownership.
 
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Drago

Legendary Member
I think the answer is in making less environmentally damaging forms of travel (i.e. trains, ferries, etc) more affordable and convenient.
There is a realistic alternative.

Do not fly for the sake of mere amusement, entertainment, or other frivolous reason. Mrs D and I had this discussion last year, and decided (for this and other reasons) that we could no longer justify it, and will no longer do so.

Alternatives be dammed. Most of these journeys are utterly unnecessary, taken for nothing more than amusement or entertainment, and people should not be crying for alternatives - they should simply stop making them.

You cannot have your cake an eat it as far as this planet if concerned.
 

oldwheels

Legendary Member
Location
Isle of Mull
My September break was train and bike. My November break will be train , cottage and walking or bus when there. We cannot cover the distance by car in anywhere near the train time. Plus train more relaxing.

I am on the verge of going car less. I’ve worked out that the cost of just insurance and VED is equivalent to 3 weeks car hire. If you do one way car hires where that works best. You are looking at 10 trips a year assuming you don’t use a car at destination.

I definitely feel we need to be moving away from the days of personal car ownership.
While I agree with your post I should point out that there can be problems for some of us.
I cannot get a hire car from my local garage due to age restrictions imposed by his insurance company.
It is some considerable time since I last hired a car but I would need to travel a considerable distance to get a hire car from anywhere else. I unfortunately need a car in order to live where I do and I can see no prospect of moving in my remaining lifetime.
 
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