JulieVikmanis

Are any of you who are watching specific flights starting to see any evidence of price declines possibly owing to the decreasing costs of fuel?

HappyTrvlr

There is discussion on this topic on the Air Travel forum. I tried unsuccessfully to cut and paste it. Sorry. Original Post is by LBloom.

BigRuss

No.

Next question.

JulieVikmanis

Thanks HappyTrvlr. I did a quick search over there and missed it. Will now search by poster name.

Andrew

I suspect we will. Or we may see more fare sales. Depends on capacity as well. If the airlines don't have empty seats, there is no incentive for them to cut prices. But, airlines may be tempted to add flights to try to steal market share from competitors, as with lower fuel prices it is more practical for them to do so.

Dukey1

I do not understand Andrew's rationale at all. The cost to the airline is going to depend on that price they negotiated with suppliers a long time ago. If anybody is going to be "making money" on falling prices it is the <B>supplier</B> of that now cheaper fuel, not some airline which agreed to a price and now must pay that price <B>unless</B> there is a clause in the contract that allows re-negotiation.

In the meanwhile as the dollar continues to rise against some foreign currencies what is the likelihood that is going to stimulate people to buy tickets? We are already seeing people advising would-be travelers that "now is the time to take advantage of lower prices."

If the airlines have a sale on remaining capacity it would seem to have come about because more people want to travel and not because fuel prices may have fallen for an airline because who knows if they really did fall.

janisj

The search function won't locate any threads after Spring 2014

here is the thread HappyTrvlr mentioned

http://www.fodors.com/community/air-...re-dropped.cfm

(HappyTrvlr: >>I tried unsuccessfully to cut and paste it. Sorry. << One doesn't 'cut/paste' -- it is a copy/paste)

dweislaw

Since USAir and AA don't hedge their fuel buys, meaning they pay current market rate, and Delta owns a refinery, lower costs are certainly in their future (United is reducing its' hedge buys and will be out of the game in a couple of years). As Andrew notes, however, that only will result in lower prices if capacity is increased. Fortunately, airlines tend to reevaluate routes when oil prices decrease.

Andrew

Dukey1: <i>I do not understand Andrew's rationale at all. The cost to the airline is going to depend on that price they negotiated with suppliers a long time ago.</i>

So you're saying they are forced to pay a much higher price for jet fuel forever? They aren't say negotiating now for much lower prices in the future, because fuel prices have fallen?

Sorry, I do not understand your rationale.