The era of cheap flights has come to an end according the boss of British Airways. Willie Walsh, chief executive of BA, made his comments yesterday, as oil prices hit a record high for the third day in a row. Oil prices now stand at $135 a barrel, compared to the price of $65 per barrel just one year ago. As fears over supply shortages in the US have grown, prices have risen at almost untenable rates.
Walsh claimed that soaring oil prices mean that many low cost airlines would be forced to raise ticket prices and/or other additional charges in a fight to survive at a time when he expected many budget carriers to go bust.
Walsh said: "This is about whether airlines can survive. If you look at a lot of the low-cost carriers around Europe, a lot of them have not been able to make money when oil was $80 per barrel,"
The statement from Walsh acts as a warning to many of the budget carriers in operation today, not to mention two of the most successful, Ryanair and easyJet – both of which have helped to revolutionise the travel industry by operating cheap flights to destinations throughout Europe.
The hike in prices is expected to affect the larger carriers as well, British Airways themselves are expected to not only raise the price of its own fares this year, but also cut thousands of flights on some of its least profitable routes, whilst American Airlines this week announced huge cuts in routes and jobs, citing the price of oil as the main catalyst.
