Are the airlines having trouble filling seats to Europe
 

The airlines throught they could make big bucks with summer travel to Europe but are now finding themselves with many unsold seats.

Just typed in NYC to London, leaving May 21 and returning on May 28. Prices are:

Air India $271 plus tax
American $294 plus tax
Delta $498 plus tax
Virgin $366 plus tax
Continental $508 plus tax

Taxes are between $250 and $300.

So, if you gave up going to Europe, check again, unfortunately, you might get stuck in the center section of a 777, which is still pretty empty just ten days before departure.

AA just sent out a summer sale from the West Coast, offering 10% off for flights to Europe.

Check their web site for offers.

Many airlines have added capacity to Europe in the last few years. Most are already running their full summer schedule by now, and there's really more supply than demand for May travel.

For example, Continental started its full summer schedule last weekend. They doubled their capacity to Lisbon, and significantly increase those to Dublin, Frankfurt, Edinburgh, Rome, and even Paris; compared to just a week ago.

I won't be surprised there are plenty of empty flights for the next few weeks.

May is really not prime high season for Europe-trust me, the airline I fly for is packed to all points to Europe this summer!

Maybe those good fares are just for May? Checking from Chicago to London, for June 21-26, the fare is around $1200. :( With some luck, maybe it will go down as those dates approach, but who knows.

Cubfan, I got $958 on Continental using Kayak. They said it included taxes.

$958 Continental, via EWR.

Non-stop on AA/BA is about $1,080. UA about $1,100.

There's lots of capacity in NYC-London. Not as much for the other routes.

Looks as if the low costs airlines in Europe are having problems getting bums on seats.

Ryanair, Easyjet & BMIBaby have all announced seat sales and I know other companies have cut services

May isn't summer and never has been. Airlines frequently offer some "sales" for fares in May at the last minute, which is what these are. It isn't even clear what rates those are, if they are RT or what.

But I have been searching for cheap fares for summer travel to Europe (real summer) in July, and the fares are over $1000 and the planes are almost full -- this is for late July and itineraries to Switzerland and France.

Those fares were round trip.

I was checking daily for a friend who wanted a ticket from Florida to CDG and Barcelona back to Florida. Today, it was down to $1032. He told me he has changed his mind and is not going to Europe.

I checked again today, three days before departure.

Air India $271 Plus Taxes (round trip)
Virgin $365 Plus Taxes
Continental $880 Plus
Delta 1019 Plus
AA $1205 Plus Taxes, (over 40 unsold seats each way)

So far I'm not seeing an indication that fares are going down. I've been checking a number of options for June and July and as dutyfree indicated, there doesn't seem to be a lot of empty seats on quite a few flights.

Consider going to www.orbitz.com, type in the dates of the flight you want, and check seating. You will see how many empty seats there are on the plane.

On the Delta flights above, 70% of the plane is empty. The U.S. based airlines raised their prices the last few days, unfortunately, I don't think they will get too many takers since Virgin is much better and cheaper.

You cannot used the online seat map to judge how full a flight is.

Got any better ideas?

Ray - not sure I understand why? I know most carriers hold back seats for FF, etc but, for ex, CO shows those in blue (and then will release them a day or two before flight if they're not taken) and the other "occupied" seats in gray. Are the gray ones not filled?

Blue seats on CO are "premium" seats saved for Elite Onepass members. White are regular open seats. Grey are occupied or held seats. By the time online check-in happens at 24 hours, all unoccupied seats are opened up.

ray - thanks. That was my understanding.

<i>Got any better ideas?</i>

Sabre
Amadeus
Worldspan
KVS
ExpertFlyer

And for free, www.seatcounter.com

On some routes, airlines make enough on cargo alone to pay for the flights, so the passenger revenue is just gravy, anyway.

New York to London, $596 including all taxes, leaving on June 17 and returning on June 25.

New York to Paris is twice that. Can anyone say, &quot;Chunnel&quot;?

Just spoke to another person who cancelled his plans to go to Italy for the summer. Instead, he is taking his daughter to Hawaii on a cruise. The reason, high air prices to Europe for summer season.

The European travel industry is going to have a weak year from U.S. toruists as the Pound and Euro are at record highs versus the dollar. I was planing on going to Scotland and when I put the costs for the trip together, I ended up reserving to go to Canada, with better quality accomodations and the price for the trip is going to cost me quite a lot less. The airlines will feel this until they aggresively put packages together to lure U.S. tourists.

Gumper-the airlines aren't responsible for making your European trip cheap due to high Euro or Pound prices!They are trying to cope with high fuel prices,security,etc. Geez-even the flight crews don't receive International pay anymore due to cost cutting and we could really use it more than anyone.........

I checked this morning, Miami to London, leaving on June 13 and returning on July 11, $654.00 on British Airways. Includes ALL Taxes.

Visiting Eastern Europe and avoiding the United Kingdom is one way to handle a shrinking Dollar.

Delta FCO-JFK last Friday was about 1/3 empty in coach on the 767.
M

1/3 empty and I bet they didn't allow anyone to use their frequent flyer miles on the flight.

The dollar is low. The planes are cramped. Passengers can't use their FF miles for the trip or the upgrade.

and

you've typed in a one-week itinerary that includes Mem. Day weekend, a traditional time in the US for family or community-oriented things plus a certain proportion of high school graduations.

HKP

Did you read the thread or did you want an award for a stupid comment?

You're just too kind.

What on earth is your problem? I was pointing out that prices for the 5/21-28 week might be low because it's not as heavily traveled as other times, and that there are other disincentives to explain why, to quote your title, &quot;airlines [might be] having trouble filling seats to Europe.&quot;

OK, to make my clarification even clearer: &quot;that prices for the 5/21-28 week might be low because <i> travel to Europe might not be as heavy as other times because Americans might have other plans or obligations.</i>&quot;

And near the bottom of the thread it mentions travel on June 13 and returning on July 11 being much reduced. And why would it be reduced, because airlines are nice people, OF COURSE NOT. They are having trouble filling the seats.

Never disagreed with you that they are having trouble filling seats, just offered a response that might explain why, including a reference to the specific dates in your OP.

Having omitted mention of your June-July dates doesn't negate the comments about other reasons WHY they aren't filling seats.

And nothing I said negated anything about the point you've been trying to make or even called into question why you might have posted the comments, so there was no reason for you to go on the attack.

Remember the goal of the airline is to maximize revenue (and therefore profit). Filling up the plane is not their goal.

We paid $$1,380.00 ($690.00 each) DFW to CDG and FRA to DFW non stop sept 17 to sept 30. It cost us $992.00 to fly to Orange country California last year with a stop in Denver.

Well, since they are maximizing revenue and not filling up the plane, maybe they can offer a little free wine? and a snack better than a snack pack?

How is offering free wine = maximizing revenue? :o

Just got flight for $839 plus fees/taxes Boston-Madrid (non-stop)-LaCoruna in mid-July on Iberia. Airline pricing is so crazy - yesterday I could not find any fare for that route anytime in July for less than $1300.

I agree Gail. Prices goes up and down each day--maybe each hour.

Miami to Paris on American Airlines is $1,738.00 in economy. However, Paris to Miami round trip is less than half that on the same flight.

Maybe all of those foreigners coming to the States will help the governments budget.

If you are looking for a good deal, try flying into Dublin, London or DUS (can't spell it)