Prices of Rio-São Paulo air shuttle's tickets double
The scenario of high airfares is likely to continue to squeeze the pockets of Brazilians, even in the face of negotiations between the government and airlines to lower prices. Even with the resumption of routes suspended during the pandemic, the supply of seats and the frequency of flights are below the levels reported in 2019, before Covid-19 hit the country and practically paralyzed the airline industry. The airlines are signaling that the supply squeeze is here to stay.Of all the routes, the price of the Santos Dumont-Congonhas air shuttle is the one that has impressed consumers the most. A round-trip flight from São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro can cost more than R$2,200 in mid-January. For R$3,400, it’s possible to buy a return ticket and spend a week in New York in February. A return ticket to Buenos Aires would cost much less, R$1,598.The average price to fly one kilometer in Brazil (yield) reached R$ 0.6014 in October this year, the highest for the month in more than 10 years and 19% higher than before the pandemic—the data, adjusted for inflation until October, are from the National Civil Aviation Agency (Anac). Meanwhile, the yield of the air shuttle in October was R$1,5569, more than double the national average and 26.5% higher than the same month in 2019.Higher airfares are nothing new, especially when the consumer buys the ticket on short notice. It’s just that the price has risen so much that even corporate travelers are switching modes. Data from the Brazilian Association of Corporate Travel (Abracorp) show that in November, corporate ticket sales in the road sector reached a record R$4.234 million, almost double the figure for the same month in 2022 and more than four times the figure for November 2019.Experts and the sector itself have pointed out that part of the fare effect is due to the lower supply of seats. While the supply of seats in the overall market fell by 3% in November compared to the pre-pandemic period, the supply in the air shuttle is 23.89% lower than in the same month of 2019. The high fares led the antitrust regulator Cade to investigate companies Gol and Latam for alleged price fixing.One of the issues on the industry’s radar is the lack of airplanes. Azul and Gol even reduced their flight plans at the end of last year due to the lack of aircraft and turbines. For this year, the industry is also expecting a tight delivery schedule.Speaking to Valor, Peter Cerdá, regional vice-president for the Americas of the International...
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