Brexit Effect on Airlines.....Snipets.....: Bre

Brexit Effect on Airlines.....Snipets.....:

Brexit risks higher fares and fewer flights for UK tourists, warns Abta

Andrew Swaffield, chief executive of the budget airline Monarch, said the emergence of low-cost airlines has increased competition and helped to cut prices for consumers.

“If the UK were to exit the EU, Monarch would view the outcomes for the travel sector as very negative, not least because of the uncertainty that would follow in the aftermath,” Swaffield said.

“An exit would most likely lead to higher air fares and fewer scheduled flights between the EU and the UK.”

Swaffield – along with Tui’s Fritz Joussen and Virgin Atlantic founder Richard Branson – has already spoken out against Brexit.

Meanwhile, last month Carolyn McCall, chief executive of easyJet suggested a Brexit could herald a return to the days when flying was “reserved for the elite”

DUBLIN: The head of Dubai-based airline Emirates has expressed concerns about the impact on travel across Europe if Britain votes to leave the EU in a June 23 referendum, as airline bosses gathered at a conference prepared for the worst.

Noting forecasts about economic disruption in the UK in the event of a vote to leave the EU, airline president Tim Clark said he was also worried about political and economic volatility in the rest of the 28-nation bloc.
“My concern is what will happen in the rest of the EU,” Clark told reporters at the annual IATA airline industry meeting in Dublin.
“Instability means lowering demand, lowering in demand means less people traveling on aeroplanes. How long that would last, I don’t know,” he said.
The CEO of German carrier Lufthansa also said he expected demand to fall if Britain leaves the bloc.
“We have already brought down our growth plans,” CEO Carsten Spohr said when asked whether the airline was making capacity adjustment plans in the event of a Brexit.
Airlines are among those that have benefited the most from EU agreements on open airspace and free movement of people, and airline executives fear Brexit’s resulting long-winded renegotiation period between governments which would need to take place to ensure that their current access to the skies was retained.
If Britain votes to leave, bilateral agreements allowing unlimited travel between Britain and the rest of the EU would have to be renegotiated. Britain would also have to agree other deals, such as with the United States, which has an open skies arrangement with the EU.
But for Irish carrier Aer Lingus, owned by UK-based International Airlines Group, chief executive Stephen Kavanagh said a Brexit could create opportunities.

With oil prices on the decline, and analysts predicting record profits for the 2014/15 financial year, Qantas and Virgin Australia are under increasing pressure to abolish fuel surcharges and lower their fares.

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission is investigating whether Qantas has been misleading with its surcharges, amid a growing perception airlines are pocketing all the fuel savings without passing any of the benefits on to their loyal customers.

Virgin Australia moved first by reintegrating the fuel surcharges on the Sydney to Los Angeles route, the only Virgin route to which the surcharge applied. Qantas followed this week by lowering the fuel surcharge for frequent flyer point redemption tickets on some routes, including to the US and Asia, but not Europe. Qantas will absorb all fuel surcharges into the base fares as soon as hedge contracts allow it and/or competition forces it to do so. As consumers are traditionally less price sensitive to the fuel surcharge compared to the base fare, unbundling both has been beneficial to airlines. The question is not if but when fuel surcharges, which only apply on international flights, will be reintegrated into the ticket price. All fares (including domestic) are also expected to come down further.

Over the past decade fares and cargo rates have fallen globally by around 60% after adjusting for CPI inflation, according to the International Air Transport Association. Qantas’ international airfares, including the fuel surcharge, have never been lower than today. Consumers have therefore enjoyed lower fares while jet fuel prices went up, which is not something other transport modes can claim.

In theory, airlines should be among the top beneficiaries of the oil price slump as fuel costs have become the largest cost category for airlines in the last decade, often representing 30-40% of total operating expenses.

International travelers passing through New York’s JFK will all commiserate over the brutal American welcome of a four-hour customs line (that’s the average wait time on weekends, according to a recent study led by various travel advocacy groups). At London’s Heathrow, queues move a lot more quickly, and that’s largely because EU citizens can enter through a separate line without any restrictions. Given Brexit, those travelers could potentially join Americans and other international travelers in one queue for non-U.K. citizens.
Charlie Leocha, president of consumer advocacy group Travelers United, said that if Brexit passes, “getting in and out of the U.K. will be an absolute horror show.” As a member of the committee that helped raise funding for the installation of automated customs and border patrol kiosks in major American airports, he knows how long it can take to come up with solutions for these types of problems. “Improving the process for customs and immigration in the U.S. took major cooperation from airlines and airports over an extended period of time. The problems we’ve had with this in the U.S. are going to replicate in the U.K.—and it’s going to be a mess,” he said.


**** Let's Just HOPE China and South East Asia / Australia.......Become Major International Hubs.......Britain (Heathrow) is Going to Lose It's Hub Status Very Quickly if They Don't React VERY QUICKLY.......$2 TRILLION LOST OVERNIGHT.......(Seriously.......)