Number of Airline Tickets Fewer as Industry Copes with Low Demand
For the last couple of years, the airline industry has been strategically trimming the number of flights scheduled and airline tickets issued in order to match the shrinking demand for traveling via airplane, particularly business travels.
According to experts, business travelers have been keeping airlines afloat since these passengers pay the most expensive fares. But with the recession, almost all companies are cutting back on travels and have decided to utilize the internet when negotiating contracts and closing deals.
For this reason, airline companies are left with no choice but to schedule fewer flights for the last quarter of the year in order to make sure each flight will be cost-efficient considering that all airline tickets will be booked and sold. With the fewer seats, it is also possible for the airlines to charge higher for their airline tickets.
Based on the estimates from the Air Transport Association, large airline companies will be offering about 12.5 billion seats (in terms of miles) in the last quarter of the current year. This figure is almost the same as the 12.1 billion seats sold in the same period of 2001, right after the 9-11 terrorist attack.
Considering the huge decline in air travel demand, industry analysts are on the lookout for signs that the industry is recovering from the economic blow. Unfortunately, the only thing that could get them through such difficult times is the thought that things will not get worse. In fact, it is widely-believed that the economy has actually bottomed and is rebounding.
Once the economy improves, analysts believe that airlines will probably consider adding more flights in order to enjoy bigger market share. Of course, the airline companies should be wise in estimating capacity.
For instance, summer bookings were quite good and a lot of the airlines expected the fall season to bring the same activity. Unfortunately, it did not and resulted to them offering large discounts on airline tickets just to fill up the seats.
