The government will hike the price of inter-island flights from this Sunday. The Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility justifies says the move is due to the increase in operating costs for airlines. An increase that, it warns, threatens the continuity of the service.
The modification, published this Saturday in the Official State Gazette (BOE), establishes reference fares and higher flexible fares. Thus, in the case of reference fares, the prices for one-way trips will remain at £113 for the Mallorca-Ibiza and Mallorca-Menorca routes and at £155 for Menorca-Ibiza. As for flexible fares, these may not exceed 30% of the reference fares.
The measure modifies the conditions established by the Council of Ministers agreement in 2003 and revised in 2008. The reference fares, which are the maximum fares set by law for PSO (public service obligation) routes, were updated in 2008 to £82 for one-way trips from Mallorca to Ibiza and Mallorca to Menorca and £114 for trips from Menorca to Ibiza.
The update now applied represents an increase of between 36% and 38% depending on the route. For flexible fares, which have margins of fluctuation depending on market competition, a maximum was set that could not exceed 25% of the reference fare, a percentage that has now been raised by five points to 30%.
The ministerial order published on Saturday amending the fare conditions established in 2008 - signed by the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, on the 23rd - argues that ‘the general economic situation and that of the air transport sector in particular, at a global level, have had a negative impact on the economic viability of this sector, increasing operating costs for airlines and compromising the viability of routes’.
Thus, “in order to continue to guarantee the viability of routes” and their conditions of “continuity, frequency, capacity and quality” of service, “it is necessary to update the reference fares and modify the upper limit of flexible fares”.
The airline Air Nostrum, one of the main operators of inter-island routes, called at the beginning of the year for a 37% increase in the reference fare for flights between the Balearic islands. The company, a subsidiary of Iberia, claimed exactly that: an increase in operating and fuel costs, as well as those related to environmental regulatory requirements.
The viability of the route would be seriously compromised if the fares were not updated. It was also proposed to raise the margin for flexible fares to 30%. All these arguments are identical to those now put forward by the ministry itself for the modification. The Ministry replied that it would be reasonable to review the fares, although it noted that a 37% increase seemed ‘excessive’ at first glance. Puente also communicated the airline's request to the government and Council of Mallorca.
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