The right price

摘要

"I believe there's still some way to go," says Alan Bender, professor of airline economics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. "They are still very opportunistic in most markets." He is speaking, of course, about the US legacy carriers and the ticket pricing models they are implementing as they struggle with overcapacity in the skies and profitability issues. "I don't believe they've done enough to address pricing. In many markets they are still clinging to dramatically higher fares than the low-cost operators and their response is still mostly reactive rather than proactive," says Bender. "In nearly all cases, where there isn't competition from a low-cost operator, the fares tend to be much higher than in markets where there is a low-cost operator. Admittedly, prices are lower than they've been in the past but ... there's still along way to go."