If you fly from Paris to Athens, the price varies within the same airline depending on your departure time. And sometimes a ticket to a distant destination is more affordable than one to a European city. In a video released in July 2024, Explore Media explains why flight prices don't make sense. So, what's behind the price of your plane tickets? Here's the Petit Futé's rundown.
Costs included in the price of your plane ticket
In its analysis, Explore Media first mentions two types of costs included in your tickets: fixed costs and variable costs.
Fixed costs
Fixed costs are those that do not depend on the level of activity. These include the cost of purchasing or leasing the aircraft, as many airlines prefer to lease aircraft. There are also aircraft parking fees, which vary according to the airport where the aircraft is located. They also vary according to the weight of the aircraft and the parking time. The example taken in the video shows that at Paris CDG airport, this costs €3.94 per ton and €0.06 per 10 minutes. By comparison, at Beauvais airport, the first two hours are free. Thereafter, the charge is €0.32 per tonne per hour. Added to this are aircraft maintenance costs, as well as administrative costs and staff salaries .
Variable costs
Variable costs depend on flight time and destination. They include fuel, landing fees, aircraft loading and unloading, and taxes. Among these taxes, you'll find airport taxes, which concern everything to do with security, for example. There are also noise nuisance taxes and solidarity taxes.
Read this article the carbon footprint of tourism in France. As air travel (along with the car) is largely responsible for the sector's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, it's important to be aware of its impact in order to find alternative transport solutions.
What's more, airlines practice what's known as yield management. This system, based on real-time supply and demand, means that the more passengers expected or seats sold on a flight, the higher the ticket price.
Why are low-cost airlines so much cheaper?
In 2023, low-cost flights accounted for over 43.2% of French airport traffic, compared with 35.1% in 2019. The low fares offered by these airlines are partly responsible for this growth, as travelers want to leave despite the inflationary environment.
To offer low prices, low-cost airlines reduce their cost per available seat kilometer (CASK), i.e. what they spend per passenger per kilometer. This is achieved by :
- offering a maximum number of routes in a day.
- listening to stopovers to reduce airport costs (and save time).
- offering no free services on board (no screens or free food).
- fly from smaller, more remote airports, which are less expensive for airlines than larger ones.
- park planes far from the airport, as far-away seats are cheaper.
- reduce the space between seats to accommodate more passengers.
Note also that at some airports (such as Beauvais airport with Ryanair), low-cost airlines have a "quasi-monopoly". The company can therefore use its economic power to negotiate fares with the airport.
For your information low-cost airlines: to lower prices, low-cost airlines also cut wages and benefits for their employees and flight crews (pilots, stewarts and stewardesses, for example). Their working conditions have been denounced several times, notably at Ryanair, in an episode of Complément d'enquête.
How to pay less for tickets?
Now that you understand a little better the mechanics behind the price of your tickets, here are a few tips on how to pay a little less:
- Be flexible with your dates. Fares often vary from day to day, with most travellers leaving at the same time. Don't hesitate to postpone your trip by a day or two, and leave outside major traffic periods (bridges, long weekends, winter vacations, etc.).
- Choose flights with stopovers. They'll take longer, but are generally less expensive.
- Don't spend your time consulting ticket-buying websites. In its video, Explore Media reports that the more you look at fares, the higher they go, as airlines track your activity on their sites. Although this practice is illegal in France, they do it all the same. Making your searches private or deleting your cookies won't change a thing. The only solution is to use a VPN.
