Tony Fernandes: Higher flight ticket prices the new normal

If you’re a frequent flyer or simply trying to buy some flight tickets for your next holiday destination, you might find that the current high airfare prices are set to stay for the long run, at least according to Capital A group Chief Executive Officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes.

According to Fernandes, you can expect higher airfares to be the new norm as airlines everywhere take advantage of the post-pandemic travel boom to charge higher prices. The rapid rebound in travel that followed the COVID-19 affected years means that right now, demand is much higher than supply when it comes to flight tickets, leading to higher prices. Fernandes though claims that this new fare environment is good actually, as airlines have previously tended to underprice their offerings.

“The fare environment is very good. I think airlines have always underpriced their products. People are getting a little bit of a shock because they see prices a bit higher, but really, we’ve been behind the curve on that as an industry,” – Tony Fernandes

However, he denies the idea that airlines are making the current airfare prices expensive on purpose, instead claiming that they aren’t even high prices, but instead real prices. Talking during an interview with Bloomberg during the Singapore Aviation Festival Asia, Fernandes added that the current fare pricing structure has already been in place as early as 2019. It’s just that after the pandemic, people began valuing travel more after not being able to travel for three years.

Fernandes also noted that for AirAsia, you can expect to see their full fleet of 204 planes back into service earlier than expected. He said that while they had initially planned to finish getting all 204 planes back into service by May of next year, they should be able to do so by May of this year instead.

Despite the higher airfare prices, you may still be able to snag flight tickets for cheap if you wait around a bit for some promotions. Just recently for example, AirAsia offered five million free seats to various Southeast Asian destinations such as Singapore, Kota Kinabalu, Bali, Krabi, Macao and more. It was part of a campaign with the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (MOTAC) to strengthen Malaysia’s place as a multi-faceted and multi-destination attraction.

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