Originally Posted by
Bluedriver
During the later stages of the last high oil price period airlines got pretty good at passing most of the oil price through to customers via ticket prices and oil surcharges. It all depends on what happens to travel demand. If demand remains high, there will be less or minimal impact. Some airlines will certainly cut routes, and the more aggressive airlines and the airlines that are managed well enough to be attractive to customers might take the opportunity to grab the remaining available market share.
Nothing about the current situation lends me to think that demand will be higher this year than what the company had already forecast. Prices will go up, consumers will have less disposable income....meanwhile the company's 2nd highest cost (fuel) will shoot up. I mean I'm sure they'll try to pass higher costs along to the customer...I'm not saying it's game over, but I don't need a Robin Blue Note to tell me that landscape isn't what it was 3 weeks ago. I wouldn't want to be on the bottom of a certain airline partner's Seniority list at the moment.