Airlines prefer to keep ticket prices "high"
Back in 2009-2010 during the high season (beginning and end of summer, winter holidays), for example, you could buy a round-trip ticket from Moscow to Irkutsk for 8-9 thousand rubles; now a one-way ticket from Moscow to Irkutsk costs at least 11,000 rubles – and that's assuming it's purchased in advance and found among many other options.
Should a Russian switch from an airplane seat to a train compartment? The answer differs for everyone, but it is worth noting that railway ticket prices have also risen, though not as much.
And yet the issue of pricing remains unexplored. It is known that unlike railways, where a monopolist essentially rules, Russian airlines are in a competitive environment. Oil prices, the main raw material for aviation fuel, have been falling for a long time, and it is expected that by the end of 2013 the price per barrel of Brent crude will be $70-80 compared to the current $100-105. But airfare prices remain high.
There is a simple system for evaluating flight costs; its measure is the number of dollars paid by a passenger per mile flown. It turns out that a Moscow–Irkutsk flight costs more than a Moscow–New York flight.
The reason for such a big difference is airline policy. Americans believe that the higher the demand, the lower the price should be set, because passengers are already flowing like a river. Russian airline policy, as a rule, is that even with the highest demand for a ticket, the carrier inflates prices assuming that customers will have nowhere else to go.
This, of course, can play a positive role for companies – there will always be demand for tickets in summer, when students return home and go to study; in winter during the holidays, when tours for schoolchildren are widely organized; and during the New Year holidays, when the main flow of tourists goes to warm sunny countries. But in the long term, this is an absolutely negative trend that will lead airlines in the future to problems such as loss of customer trust, inspection by the FAS, and a sharp deficit of passengers.
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