.opinion | A little something called competitive prices.
So I’ve always wondered how airlines set up their prices for flights. Sure I can understand the thing about business, economy and first class, and not to mention the difference in prices depending on the day of the week and the demand for that flight. Here’s something that makes a little less sense…
So after playing around on the British Airways site (http://www.ba.com) I’ve managed to find something interesting:
By selecting two flights that are on the same date for outward and return, you can get some pretty non-logical results. For example:
London-Stuttgart (8 June 2010, returning 15 June 2010) costs 290 GBP, whereas
London-Munich (8 June 2010, returning 15 June 2010) costs 265 GBP
The funny thing about this is that Munich is about 250km further away from London than Stuttgart. Surely the further away the place you’re flying to, the more fuel needs to be used, the more per-hour wages are being paid to the cabin crew.
Here’s a short economics 101 answer for you. Competition. Munich is huge, and a busy airport. There’s going to be like 2-3 times as many airlines flying London-Munich than there are flying London-Stuttgart. I guess the lesson from this is that, next time you’re planning your trip somewhere, it may be worthwhile to fly to the larger, busier city, and then take a train to your final destination.
