Germanwings: Oil to drive up ticket prices
June 17, 2008Germanwings, the Lufthansa-owned no-frills airline, has said that it expects ticket prices to rise as a consequence of surging fuel prices.
The cost of oil reached another record high yesterday - $139.89 (£71.53) per barrel - and according to Germanwings chief executive Thomas Winkelmann carriers must respond in kind.
He told German magazine Wirtschaftswoche that low-cost airlines will be forced to jack up their prices in the near future, and predicted the availability of special deals will begin to decline.
Illustrating the severity of the challenge facing the industry, Winkelmann revealed that some services were now loss-making even when running on near-full capacity.
"The flights are full, but full doesn't necessarily mean profitable," he ominously told the magazine.
Winkelmann's comments come alongside a similar statement from Qantas, which also predicted a surge in global air fares as carriers struggle to cope with the doubling of fuel costs over the past year.
This month, Lufthansa and Air France became the latest in a growing list of airlines to increase their fuel surcharges.
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