Despite the rising prices of airline tickets amid the ruble's depreciation and the coronavirus pandemic, according to experts at Biletix, the average cost of international flights is still lower than a year earlier.
“Based on our observations, we note a clear "There is a correlation between the cost of international airfare and the Russian ruble exchange rate. This is due to the fact that settlements between aviation market participants occur at the internal exchange rate of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which in the Russian market is tied to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation exchange rate. Since the exchange rate changes weekly at midnight (00:00) from Tuesday to Wednesday, we expect a corresponding increase in the average cost of international airfare on March 11," the company told TRN.
They also noted that given that the average round-trip international ticket booking last week (March 2–8) was 15,660 rubles, based on exchange rate fluctuations, the company expects the average ticket to increase by approximately 10%, or to 17,226 rubles.
However, this is lower than the same period last year, when the average roundtrip international ticket price was 18,897 rubles (high oil prices at the beginning of last year led to an increase in the cost of aviation fuel). Therefore, even taking into account the upcoming price hike for international flights, the cost of international flights will be lower than last year.
"Amid the negative news surrounding the spread of the coronavirus, we are seeing an increase in the number of requests for airline ticket exchanges: compared to the same period last year, the number of requests has grown from 1.2% to 6% of all bookings," Biletix concluded.
Source: trn-news.ru