Economics IA: Microeconomics Commentary on Heathrow Slams Price Cap Put On Airline Fees Word count:

As the nature of the good is a seat on a plane, clearly capacity constraints are present in the form of the limited seating on aircraft, as well as the inability to in the short run increase output beyond full capacity. During the setting of price, clear communication will most likely result in a non-static equilibrium. As well as this, the symmetry in terms of the market and cost structures has played a part in creating a successful cartel. Each firm produces a relatively homogenous good in terms of economy, business or first class, with a limited amount of features it can differentiate itself from its competitors. As well as this, using Figure 1, which will be discussed later on, demonstrates that the main costs to an airline are those which cannot be easily reduced or offset, most notably the cost of fuel and aircraft maintenance. Therefore both firms have near perfect knowledge of the cost structure and revenue through observing prices, and will aid in choosing a certain pricing strategy.

It would be expensive to buy all the planes, at over $5m each, the airport, and spend the money on getting customers.

1 This essay will assess how globalisation has impacted on the airline industry using British Airways as an example to illustrate this change had on the industry as a whole. This essay will attempt to show how the airline industry and British Airways in particular coped with thesee change and how neoliberalism thinking allowed and supported this fundamental change to happen.

The sector employs more than 3 million people. Prior to the 1990’s, the air transport industry in Europe had been traditionally highly regulated and dominated by national carriers and state owned airports. Since then a single market for aviation has been created. The single market has seen the removal of all commercial restrictions for airlines flying within Europe. These include restrictions on routes, number of flights and the setting of prices.

Some governments provide subsidies that provide an unfair advantage and prices lower than market conditions which affects the functioning of airline industries directly and Global

Rising fuel prices has a huge impact on the airline industry. In an article published by the New York Times in 2007, oil prices were hovering ‘near $100 a barrel’ which caused the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to ‘slash’ their predicted profits for 2008 from ‘$7.8 billion to $5 billion’ (Clark, 2007). In 2008 high fuel prices were ‘dominant factor’ in the losses that faced the industry, and continued to same effect in 2009 (Dunn, 2009). Diagram 2 shows how fuel price has increased and fallen over the last 5 years.

Non-aviation income is not regulated and the Airport, therefore, seeks to encourage the development of such revenue streams to sustain the profitability of the Company. To maintain its reputation as a quality service provider, therefore, Manchester Airport has to ensure that it increases capacity and markets itself to become more

* Market. The market is a huge weakness with the economic downturn and people flying less, they are having a harder time to keep the basic fares down low enough for people to fly.

A drop in fares has been the best result of the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978. It has been the impetus for the increase in the number of flights, which in turn has spurred a drive for greater safety in airlines. But with the current airline market, this development has given us one negative. Since ticket prices have dropped to new lows, the realities of an industry which operates on such economies of scale dictates that only a few competitors have the capacity to operate within the market. This is not the desired effect of either political side on this issue, but it is an economic necessity with the environment that has been created, very similar to that of public utilities and phone companies.

“Airport Quotas and Peak Hour Pricing: Theory and Practice.” U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration, May 1976. Web. 25 March 2014.

The Airline industry has experienced continual problems with rising costs with both fuel and maintenance which has caused them to increase their fees to the consumers to pay for those rising costs. This paper will help explain what an airline such as Delta does to help alleviate such costs without forcing its consumers to flip the bill through high fees that consist of tickets, baggage fees and food. The costs of doing business in aviation today have spiraled out of control making it very expensive for both airlines and the

·     The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is responsible for setting ‘…price caps on airport charges…at airports designated by the Secretary of State’ (www.caa.co.uk). One of these is Stansted, which has hitherto ‘…benefited from discounted airport charges and cross-subsidy from the higher charges paid by the airlines at Heathrow and Gatwick airports’ (Done 18/12/03). CAA’s new requirements command airport financing without cross-subsidisation on a stand-alone basis. Consequently discounts will be removed and charges possibly increased. Ryanair has protested as it will raise its costs (Done 20/10/03).

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With the demand on transportation and advancements on technologies, airline industry became one of the fastest developing industries on the world. These developments, high leveled competitive market and the never-ending demand on faster transportation reduced the plane ticket

fixed costs in the airline industry. As the aviation fuel price is closely linked to the oil price, the