Comparison of fares from Singapore to London:After a series of monthly checks since Jan 08, i must comment the taxes & fuel surcharge have went up tremendously, who would have imagined the fares can be so high? But as what i have mentioned to some, this is the future of flying, costs are gonna be high. What irks me is that some people whom i have seen at the travel fair claims that last year it was only 1.2k after taxes to London; what i will reply is last year is last year, lets face reality, do your maths, calculate the price of a gallon of oil for your flight and divide it by the number of passengers, do you think its reasonable?
Lets face the fact, for such 12-18h long journey to London, the fuel cost alone for a flight would run up to as many as US$60k, a "bad" airline will past the cost to the consumers leading to very ex surcharge, but while a "good" airline will know how to cope with high fuel costs by hedging against price rises and maintaining cost efficiencies. Their yield management just says it all - efficient. Airlines like Cathay Pacific have limitations in increasing fuel surcharge due to govt regulations, so lets be glad. Apparently, they are covering the extra cost that they cannot pass to consumers, leading to fare increase wef 01 sep 08. Some airlines like Emirates & Sri Lanka Airways include their fuel surcharge into the airfare nett price, thats gd, but that also means that their airfare will be expensive than the rest since it includes fuel surcharge (YQ).
what makes up an airfare:
airfare nett + tax (airport, security, terrorist), surcharges (navigation, insurance, new plane surcharge), fuel surcharge = total cost.
Fuel surcharge will defintely more or less takes up the bulk of the total cost
why taxes go up & down?currency fluctuations. fuel costs & external airport tax are in us dollars or others, there is a rate of exchange IATA provides, hence the fluctuations.
How? Lets anaylze:
*All prices shown are in SGP dollars, cheapest economy fare & promo NATAS fares
* Prices & fuel surcharge based on 03 aug 08
* Prices are nett, exclude travel agent services fee if any
* List is not exhaustive, every airline has a whole long list of booking classes just for economy alone, chances are that during peak periods, all the lowest fares are fully booked, leaving you with the 3k+ tkt. its common.
*Fares are based on airfare (A) + taxes & fuel surcharge (B). e.g. 850 (A) + 1058 (B) = cost
* v class 6d/1m tkt = "V" booking class, min stay: 6d, max stay: 1mth
AF - Air France (via Paris CDG): > 850 + 1058 = 1908 *Natas promo, v class 6d/1m tkt
> 1160 + 1058 = 2218 *Normal tkt lowest price, L class, 6d/1m tkt
BA - British Airways/Qantas (direct)> 998 + 769 = 1767 *Natas promo, n class, -/12mth tkt
> 1048 + 769 = 1817 *Normal tkt lowest fare, V class, /-12m tkt
CX - Cathay Pacific (via HK)> 1628 + 609 = 2237 *Normal lowest fare, v class , /-6m tkt
EK - Emirates (via Dubai)> 1288 + 185 = 1473 *Natas promo, B class, 3d/30d tkt, sin-dxb on ek352, 353 only
> 1499 + 185 = 1684 *same as above, m class
> 1799 + 185 = 1984 *The hidden min 2 to go fare, not many know its existence
> 2012 + 185 = 2197 * The lowest fare for normal price tkt, W class, 3d/30d tkt
EY - Etihad (via Abu Dhabi)> 1250 + 465 = 1715 *Normal fare, Q class, -/3m tkt
JL - Japan Airlines (via Tokyo Narita)> no point seeing the airfare, taxes is at sgd1393 alone.
MH - Malaysian Airlines (via Kuala lumpur)>930 + 869 = 1799 *Natas promo, L class, flight restrictions, 30d tkt
>1170 + 869 = 2039 *Normal lowest far, S class, /-6m tkt
KL - KLM Royal Dutch (via Amsterdam schipol)> 850 + 1013 = 1863 *Natas promo, v class, 7d/1m tkt
> 950 + 1013 = 1963 * Normal lowest fare tkt,v class, 7d/1m tkt
LH - Lufthansa Airlines (via Frankfurt/Munich)> 880 + 862 = 1742 *Natas promo, U class, 7d/1m tkt
> 1300 + 862 = 2162 * normal lowest fare, 7d/1m tkt
LX - Swiss Air (via Zurich)> 1100 + 631 = 1731 *Lowest normal fare, T class, -/12 mth tkt
SQ - Singapore Airlines (direct)> 1250 + 501 = 1751 (min 4 to go promo,cannot fly by a380)*n class, 3d/1m tkt
> 1450 + 501 = 1951 (min 2 to go)*q class, 3d/1m tkt
> 1700 + 501 = 2201 *e class, -/1m tkt
QR - Qatar Airways (via doha)> 1032 + 453 = 1485 *v class, 5d/1m tkt
> 1105 + 453 = 1558 *H class, -/3m tkt
TG - Thai Airways (via Bangkok Survanabhumi)> 765 + 1049 = 1814 *v class, 5d/1m tkt natas promo
> 924 + 1049 = 1973 * v class, -/3m tkt, normal fare
TK - Turkish Airways (via Istanbul)> 1239 + 703 = 1942 *E class, 1 mth tkt
MU - China Eastern (via Shanghai Pudong)> 600 + 919 = 1519 *Q class, all year long fare, -/45 d tkt
CA - Air China (via Beijing)> 950 + 919 = 1869 *W class, -/30d tkt
Conclusion: its costly to fly to london due to the high airport surcharges, flying to paris may be slightly cheaper, other parts of europe will usually be cheaper, but also depending on seat availability. Taxes & fuel surcharge are subjected to change, its even more difficult to predict as compared to stock market.