The "May Day" air ticket price plunge has attracted the attention of many consumers, and even once appeared on the hot search. On April 29, the reporter noticed that not all routes saw a significant drop in prices. Affected by factors such as strong travel demand and favorable visa exemption, the fares of some popular direct flights such as Beijing-Osaka and Beijing-Bangkok are still high. During the "May Day" period, the price of air tickets for some domestic routes did decline, mainly due to the diversion of civil aviation passengers by high-speed rail, and the change of high-price strategy by airlines to pursue a balance between volume and price. According to the current domestic air ticket booking situation, the most popular destinations are still "familiar faces" such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Chongqing, and even on May 1, there are still many low-cost tickets for popular routes on sale. On the whole, May 2-4 is the trough of air ticket prices, and passengers who have not yet determined their itinerary can "pick up" low-cost flights through off-peak travel, but they also need to pay attention to the return ticket price.
The ticket price of the Beijing-Osaka direct flight route still exceeds 10,000 yuan
On April 29, the reporter searched on the Ctrip Travel App and found that a number of popular international flights departing from Beijing during the "May Day" period did not have a price dive, and their fares were basically the same as half a month ago, and some routes had a slight increase or decrease.
Taking the Beijing-Osaka route as an example, Ctrip's travel app shows that the round-trip ticket price of China Southern Airlines' CZ8029 economy class flight on May 1 and CZ8030 on May 5 is 12,050 yuan, compared with 11,065 yuan queried by a reporter from Beijing Business Daily on April 7, there is a slight increase.
Not only that, the economy class ticket price of Air China's CA979 and CA980 Beijing-Bangkok round-trip direct flights with a departure trip of May 1 and a return trip of May 5 was 7,913 yuan on April 29, while the price displayed on the round-trip flight on April 7 was 7,914 yuan, a time difference of more than 20 days, and the price was only reduced by 1 yuan. Similarly, the economy class price of Air China's CA969 and CA970 round-trip direct flights from Beijing to Singapore on May 1 and return on May 5 was 8,549 yuan on April 29, and the price of this flight was 8,551 yuan on April 7, a price difference of only 2 yuan.
From the perspective of overall international air ticket prices, the data of Flight Steward on April 29 showed that the average price of international air tickets on the Flight Steward platform during the "May Day" period was 2,264 yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 21.2%, and an increase of 4.8% compared with 2019.
Some people in the civil aviation industry believe that international flights will further recover in 2024, and the capacity will be greatly improved, so the year-on-year decline in fares is a normal phenomenon. Flight Steward data also shows that as of April 28, international flights have recovered to 72% of the same period in 2019, while the same period in 2023 has only recovered to 36.2% of 2019.
For the rising prices of popular routes, the above-mentioned industry insiders said that this is caused by the high enthusiasm and strong demand of passengers to leave during the holiday, and it is also a normal market change law.
Yu Haibo, an associate professor at the School of Tourism and Service at Nankai University, mentioned that the combination of the benefits of the visa-free policy and the advantage of distance has further promoted the willingness of domestic tourists to travel to Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand and Singapore, which has led to an increase in fares for routes to these popular destinations.
Airlines implement a volume-price balancing strategy
During the "May Day" holiday, the price of air tickets for some domestic routes fell.
According to the monitoring of the data of the flight ticket, as of 17:00 on April 26, the price of domestic air tickets near the "May Day" has fallen, and the average price of domestic economy class air tickets during the "May Day" holiday in the past 7 days is 852 yuan (excluding tax), down 1.13% year-on-year and 22% month-on-month. Prices did not increase on May 1 on many popular routes, and there are still low-cost direct flight tickets.
The above-mentioned industry insiders believe that the price of domestic air tickets on May Day has indeed declined as a whole. The reason for this is that on the one hand, the high-speed rail has an impact on the diversion of civil aviation, with the continuous optimization of the high-speed rail network, the competitive disadvantages of civil aviation in short- and medium-distance transportation have become more and more obvious, and this phenomenon has continued from last year to this year;
During the 2023 Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday, due to airlines' high expectations for the civil aviation market, capacity and ticket pricing are too high, and in the case of additional high-speed rail flights, air ticket prices will drop sharply before the holiday. The above-mentioned industry insiders said that during this year's "May Day" holiday, the capacity of civil aviation and the expected passenger volume are still growing compared with 2019, but airlines are more cautious in pricing and capacity allocation, and instead use appropriate low prices to stimulate the purchase of some price-sensitive passengers, thereby increasing the level of passenger load factor.
In addition, Yu Haibo said that in recent days, Guangdong and Jiangxi have been raining continuously, and according to the forecast of China Weather Network, Guangzhou, Changsha, Chengdu and other southern cities will usher in continuous rainy weather during the "May Day" period, which has inhibited the willingness of some passengers to travel to a certain extent, and will also have a certain impact on domestic air ticket prices.
Popular destinations are still concentrated in traditional tourist cities
Although the fares of some routes have decreased to varying degrees, from the overall flight booking situation, people's enthusiasm for travel during the "May Day" holiday is still undiminished. According to the big data of air travel, as of April 26, during the "May Day" holiday, the number of air ticket bookings for domestic routes exceeded 4.77 million, a year-on-year increase of about 10%, and the number of air tickets booked for inbound and outbound routes exceeded 860,000, a year-on-year increase of about 1.5 times.
From the perspective of popular routes, the domestic destinations of "May Day" travel are still concentrated in traditional tourist cities. According to the big data of air travel, as of April 26, the top 10 popular domestic routes (regardless of direction) during the "May Day" holiday are Shanghai-Beijing, Beijing-Chengdu, Shanghai-Guangzhou, Beijing-Shenzhen, Shanghai-Shenzhen, Shanghai-Chengdu, Beijing-Guangzhou, Beijing-Hangzhou, Chengdu-Shenzhen, and Beijing-Chongqing.
The "2024 May Day" Travel Trend Insight Report (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") released by Ctrip also confirms this point. According to the report, Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Nanjing, Xi'an, Wuhan, Guangzhou and Changsha are the top ten popular tourist destinations during the May Day holiday. In terms of destination holiday bookings, four of the top 10 most popular cities have the same bookings as last year, namely Beijing, Xi'an, Guangzhou and Changsha.
In addition, more and more "small towns" are favored by young travelers during the May Day holiday. According to the report, travel bookings in fourth-tier cities and below during the May Day holiday increased by 140% year-on-year, and the growth rate was significantly higher than that of first- and second-tier cities. Among them, hotel bookings in the county market increased by 68% year-on-year, scenic spot ticket orders increased by 151% year-on-year, and cities with regional airports such as Tumshuke, Baoshan, Huaihua, Chifeng, Hotan, Heze and other cities saw a significant year-on-year increase in air ticket bookings, most of which exceeded 50%.
Yu Haibo suggested that in the case of falling air ticket prices, the majority of residents who are willing to travel can take a "fake in fake" off-peak tour by "picking up leaks", which can not only enjoy air ticket discounts, but also avoid travel congestion and get a better cultural experience.
Source: China.com
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