Sir,
This week’s Sunday Mail prompted this missive, as it ran articles relating to our dear President and the amount of “air kilometres” he’s clocked up during his relatively short term in office. Just this week I was looking around various travel websites for prices of flights from Cyprus to Singapore.
The simplest route is Larnaca-Dubai-Singapore with Emirates – price on February 1: €2,431 return for two persons.
I then thought: “I wonder what it costs from UK?”.
London-Dubai-Singapore with Emirates on February 1 is €1,457 return for two persons. [You can get a return Paphos-London flight for two on easyJet in this period for about €360].
This prompted an email to Emirates and their subsequent reply.
“Dear Emirates,
My wife and I wish to travel to Singapore next February and I’ve been looking at your online quotes. We live in Cyprus and it is much less expensive to fly back to UK and travel from London than it is flying from Cyprus.
Spending nine hours travelling in the wrong direction to get to the same destination for €1,000 less is ridiculous. Please advise why your Cyprus fares are so high.
P. Stephens”
“Dear Mr Stephens,
Thank you for your email.
Different airfares will be available from different countries depending on several factors and there are a number of reasons why there might be increases in fares.
In the last 5-6 months the aviation industry witnessed the ever soaring fuel prices to reach its peak which in turn resulted for every airline to increase their fare levels.
Emirates too had to revise their fares not once but four times till today.
With no choice the airlines has to increase the prices if the fuel prices keeps on increasing.
Also along with the increase in fuel prices, there is an element of seasonality in the fares, however fares will also vary from country to country depending on the commercial/operating environment in each respective country – they will not necessarily be the same for different countries of departure.
“As with any commercial enterprise, the laws of supply and demand will apply, and products and services are sold in different countries at different prices depending on demand – the higher the demand, the higher the price, and vice versa. The same applies to fares with airlines – fares are priced differently to/from different destinations.
You may indeed therefore see different fares for the same city combination if the travel originates from one of the cities as opposed to the other – nearly all scheduled airlines operate in this manner.
Regret, but we can offer you only the applicable fare as per your departure dates.
Kind regards,
Shanaz.
Emirates Online Team,
UAE”
What a whole load of corporate double-speak and tosh: when they raised their fares months ago when oil went to $150 a barrel that has since come down below $80 a barrel and Emirates, being a Gulf airline, are sitting on as much of the damned stuff as they want anyway.
What they are in fact saying is: “Hard luck for living on an island where the only way off is by plane. If we [and the other airlines] want to make you pay through the nose we will.”
Goodbye tourist industry – we’ll make all the people of Cyprus have a Carbon Footprint of over size 12 – and me… well I’m off to negotiate a price for a canoe!
Peter Stephens,
Polis
