Being a frequent flier particularly across east and southern africa, I always get astounded at the prices that are quouted to me as the don’t seem commensurate with the distance that is to be undertaken bythe airline to drop me off, and i am talking economy class here.
News reports keep alluding to the higher yields or mark ups that airlines are able to make on inter African flights that they would not be able to achieve with intercontinental flights. Hence many came off rather unscathed by the global aviation crisis and the overall near fianancial meltdown that we have had over the last 18 months. Simply put African do not really travel for pleasure, but more for trade(lagos to Dubai) and will pay anything to get to their source markets. Add to the fact that the airline industry is highly regulated and protectionist, monopolies and uncompetitive behaviour thrives .
Here is a sample from Kenya Airways:
- Nairobi to London…………………..Flight time 8 hours…………………………$930
- Nairobi to Muscat……………………Flight time 5 hours…………………………$561 (special offer $300)
- Nairobi to Johannesburg………….Flight time 4 hours…………………………$726
- Nairobi to Entebbe………………….Flight time 45 minutes…………………….$420
Think about it: if a 45 minute flight costs $420, then a 4 hour flight should cost $1,600 and an8 hour flight should cost $3,200, surely, its simple maths. But why does it not?
You can actually get a $320 ticket to Entebbe, but you would have to fly out at 9pm and return at 6am! Yes we do have our version of the red eye flight. The arrival of Air Uganda and Fly540 have greatly helped relieve the price pressure.
Fly 540 has 2 flights per day and gives a price of $268, of which $110 is taxes fees and charges (almost 30% of the ticket price!). Air Uganda has 2 flights a day and prices range from $140-199, excluding taxes. How kenya airways is able to charge more and get away with it seems to stem from the huge volume of flights, 4-5 per day, thus allowing passengers flight time options, they are also able to offer onward connections to more destinations and they have a frequent flier program too.
Is there light at the end of the tunnel for the travelling public? Do we need to have the East african governments to drop the riddiculously high airport taxes and prevent anti competitive behaviour. Or perhaps the new super rail link from Mombasa to kampala will finally do the trick.
I think a lot of your arguments answer the question. You are right about the huge majority of African travelers (I’d say probably about 96 %) are business and not leisure travelers, so that influences the prices as well. Because they have to travel for business, business-people will pay the fare, and airlines know it too and price it up.
Little competition on routes doesnt help. Not too long ago, KQ had a total monopoly on the Nairobi-Entebbe route and could dictate prices as they wished. With a handful of other airlines flying the route now, they have dropped the price, but still $ 420 for the 45 min flight between Entebbe and Nairobi is expensive if you compare that to $ 430 for the 5 hour flight between Los Angeles and New York City that American Airlines is charging for Sept 2010 flights.
The 1 hour or so flight between Los Angeles and San Francisco on American Airlines on the same day would cost $ 180 return.
In my opinion, in Africa prices are mostly influenced by the type of traveller and competition on the route.
I still like the fact though that you can travel around Africa without having to pay checked bag fees or buy food on board !!
Should the East African governments intervene to force down prices like the Kenyan government has done to reduce mobile phone charges. The unfortunate truth is that airport taxes are an easy cash cow for strapped treasury resources. But why on earth do we accept that taxes make up 30% of a inter regional flight. It does not promote travel at all. And it wont promote selling tourism on a regional basis as the cost of transferring from one country to another is prohibitive.
But that said, it is now much easier to get across the continent than ever before. We all rememebr the times one had to transit through paris or rome just to get to Dakar 0r Tunis.
Flights between two african cities is expensive because airport landing fees and other Civil Aviation Authority fees in African countries are massive. Aviation Authorites in Africa are not interested in being efficient if they can get away by billing the airline customers more. That of course explains only why flying Entebbe-Nairobi is expensive, not why Kenya airways is most expensive.
In “Entebbe-Nairobi” Kenya airways can be considered the “most prestigous” operator available, and thus they can price themself more expensive than others and get away with it. But on Nairobi-London the the best paying customers prefer BA or Virgin, and thus KQ needs to compete with price.
Business 101 – the right price is not the cost of creating the product – it is what people are ready to pay for it.
Africa flights and travel. Guide to flights and travel in Africa. Civil Aviation Authorities of most countries have influence in determining the airline ticket prices. This can be attributed to Africa having few flight schedules especially in regard to direct international flights.
[…] How exactly are airline ticket prices in Africa calculated? […]
I hardly comment, but after looking at through a
few of the remarks here How exactly are airline ticket prices in Africa
calculated? | Kabozi: notes from a ugandan abroad. I actually do have some questions for you if you tend not to mind.
Is it simply me or do some of the remarks appear like
they are coming from brain dead people? 😛 And, if you are writing at other places, I’d like to keep up with you. Would you post a list of all of your social community sites like your Facebook page, twitter feed, or linkedin profile?