Cheap air tickets are not always easy to find only by providing discounts and cutting down on profits. The price of air tickets that is listed has many hidden efforts behind it which are made to reduce the cost but rather increase the prices. But for the customer, it is a very simple idea to find out the rates, check for the discounts that are being offered and then make some comparisons and finally book their tickets. Whereas for the airlines, there are a number of steps that are well-considered to make sure that the rates are minimized without making any compromises on the security and safety issues.
The efforts at cost cutting start right from the time of manufacturing of the aircraft. The aim of manufacturers is to develop most fuel-efficient aircrafts by using the best of technology and other ways which aim at reduction of cost. Better aerodynamics, propulsion, alternative fuels and better navigation gadgets can help the manufacturers in devising such kind of aircrafts.
Also, once the aircraft is developed, the cost of its financing as well as operations hold great importance for making it possible for the airlines to get cheaper prices for tickets. Operations have the key to the fuel economy. Many ways of reducing the costs are turnaround times, in-flight methods, routing, flight schedules, occupancy levels etc.
Repair and maintenance is another front which is capital intensive and also requires to be considered in order to cater for cheap air tickets for customers. For any new aircraft, the checks that are conducted are less expensive than the ones that are conducted as the age of the plane increases. More number of thorough checks are needed which involve great capital investment. These make the flight tickets much more expensive.
Another front which requires to be paid attention is the minimization of losses as well as wastages at the various levels of operations and manufacturing. It is also a fact that many losses and wastages may or may not be in control of the air carriers. But, for all the parameters which can be controlled by humans, there must be better efficiencies designed through technological and human intervention.
Therefore, there is a lot that goes into reducing the cost of air tickets. What appears to the customer is just the tip of the iceberg.
Martin Wynn
