Transportation
Why Airline Tickets Are Still So Expensive and Likely to Remain That Way
- People willing to spend after being denied chances to travel
- IATA says airlines lost nearly $200 billion over three years
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The worst of the pandemic has subsided, countries are accessible again and airlines expect decent profits now that business and leisure travel has returned. Why, then, are fares still so high?
For one, there’s a lack of planes. Airlines idled large portions of their fleets because travel demand was so lackluster during the pandemic that they weren’t needed. Now they can’t bring them back fast enough — it takes 100 working hours to ready the biggest jets for service after being parked away.