Since the market is dynamic keeps on fluctuating with time, new trends are always popping up and new research has to be carried out to gauge the drift of the market current. It is same with all the sectors of the industry including the aviation industry. The aviation industry relies heavily on the changing pattern of the oil prices and the cost of air tickets keeps on changing and is relative to fuel price. Since the price of fuel is on an upward march, the prices in the air tickets are showing a steep rise. But researches are being conducted worldwide to study the pattern and popular trend related to the economics of aviation industry. The stats that keep on surfacing and the economists suggest the path and movement of prices in industry.
Sometime back the most popular news that made rounds in almost all the social networking sites, and was tweeted and face-booked by millions of people around the globe was regarding a finding that emphasized that the cheapest tickets can be purchased on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The finding was blogged aggressively in the blogosphere and stayed in spotlight for weeks on end. But a recent research indicates that there is no sufficient proof to back up the evidence that booking on Tuesday helps save money and buying tickets on weekends is more profitable.
A study conducted by an associate professor of economics Steven Puller and Lisa Taylor of A&M University Texas have found out that one can make savings of about 5% if one books tickets on Saturday and Sunday. The study revealed that the airlines intentionally follow a policy of “price discrimination” and with a good reason too. Usually a big chunk of travelers on all the major routes are business persons who prefer to travel on week days. Airlines actually lose business travelers on weekends by missing business persons and therefore they target leisure travelers to make up for the loss. Airlines are forced to slash down the fares to make the customers buy air tickets on weekends than on the regular working days.
- To what extent the observations of this research are true and can be relied upon remains to be seen, but to avail discounts on your air tickets you will have to follow some steps that might help to save you your money.
- Firstly you must subscribe to the news letters from airlines as well as aggregator sites so that you could be able to compare the results and book accordingly.
- Secondly you must plan your travel itinerary well in advance and book your tickets at least four weeks before your day of travel. You should choose tickets with flexible departure and arrival dates.
- If you are unable to book your online airlines ticketsin advance you could book a flight that departs at in the odd hours i.e. early morning flights or late night flights are much cheaper.
- You can join a frequent flyers program if you travel extensively, that will help you in getting better deals
Nguyen An Tra My
Martin Wynn
