Airlines having to cover costs of fall in passengers, rise in APD and winter fuel prices

PALMA
OVER the past few weeks, a large number of readers have contacted the Bulletin to express their discontent about the apparently large number of flights between Britain and Palma which are not going to be operating over the winter.

Some charter, low cost and scheduled carriers are postponing operations over the winter but, spokesperson for the ABTA, the Association of British TravelAgents, Sean Tipton explained yesterday that in most cases, the routes affected will be between Palma and regional airports with relatively lower winter load factors in comparison to other airports.

Thomson Holidays decision to suspend operations for three months in Majorca this winter has significantly added to the loss of charter flights but Tipton said that airlines have suffered an overall decline of 10 percent in the number of outbound UK passengers this year and, in the case of Spain, the fall has been slightly higher at between 12 and 15 percent. “So, obviously, the airlines have had to consolidate, like most areas of the travel industry and reduce their capacity to cut costs,” he outlined. “What the airlines will have done is study their load factors and passenger numbers and scale down on their least profitable routes. “Obviously, for demographic reasons, load factors in and out of the airports in the South East of England are going to be the least affected but regional airports, which are also more expensive to operate from, are going to be where passenger figures are more likely to drop off over the winter.