miltiades wrote:Kikapu wrote:miltiades wrote:Booking a flight to Cyprus for Dec 24th to Jan 7th , a whole two weeks , my longest ever time in Cyprus.
British airways same day an hour later , same return , charges £345.00 , CYA on the other hand , infected no doubt by that Cypriot decease currently rampant at Paphos and Larnaca airport , KOPSEKKELLE , charge £507 plus £10 booking fee ( greedy bastards) making a total of £517 , which is £172 more than BA REPRESSENTING 47% MORE !!!
Who runs Cyprus Airways for crying out loud . It is the nations national airline and it should act responsibly not allowing some tin pot little accountant decide on the price.
Now , I'm not a stingy man but at the same time I hate it when someone stitches me up .
Get your act together Cyprus airways pay attention to the competition .
Miltiades, you cannot compare BA and CA on equal footing, because all things being equal between the two airlines, it will cost more to fly to Cyprus with CA than BA just because BA can take more direct route to Larnaca from the UK than CA can, who is not allowed to fly over Turkey which would shorten the flying time by 30-45 minutes. This added time costs money in fuel, added pilots and flight attendants flying time which costs more money, more flying hours on the engines and the airframe on the aircraft which would need maintenance more frequently which adds to the cost. BA is also able to pay less for a new aircraft since they can get a much better deal from manufactures on large volume orders than CA can on ordering much fewer aircrafts. I'm not saying it should cost as much as 47% more that BA, but BA being a much larger company, they can afford to charge less since they operate on much greater volume of passengers than CA does. Once Turkey opens her airspace to CA, then you can make more comparable cost differentials, although BA will still have greater volume than CA, but the cost should go down some when flying on CA for the same route as BA from the UK.
Kikapu , that is a valid point but one that fades into insignificance when one is reaching for his debit card . I have flown on Cyprus airways numerous times over the years and cant recall the aircraft being full . The point that I emphasize is the fact that CA has been losing money over the years .Its aircraft travel not at the full potential , would it not make sense , since it is after all the nations national airline , to become competitive and attain more passengers. I prefer flying out of Gatwick anyway , nearer home , and CA do not have a service now from GA.
In my business , catering equipment , we always try to be competitive , cant always do so , but we do aim to be not the most expensive supplier in London. CA IS the most expensive in the UK !
I think you will find that CA and BA have comparable load factors or utilisation. They both hover around the 80-90% which is industry standard. However, BA has far larger aircraft and their cost per seat mile would be less. Furthermore, CA is unable to compete with BA, because Cyprus has 2 new terminals which have been leased to private enterprise since they are now operated by Hermes Airports. Since the majority of money was spent by this private concern, they have had to raise Landing and Ground Handling fees to ensure a return on investment over the lease period. These prices impact CA because Lanaca is its main hub, whereas BA only has a few flights to Larnaca each week. Then add flight time and fuel considerations for not being able to use Ankara FIR as Kikapu mentions and the fact that CA only operate 11 aircraft and don't have the volume of BA, and there is your answer.
Also, CA prices are far more reasonable than you portray, since you are able to book tickets at discounted prices during non peak periods and especially if you book far enough in advance.
So all in all, CA is far less competitive again st the big carriers like BA, Singapore Airlines, Qantas, Emirates etc etc and needs to offer a different angle in order to be viable. They do this by having above average service and passenger room. This too has a price, since CA will have less seats on their A330 and A320 aircraft than BA would. Add to this the fact that BA can utilize far larger B777 and A340 aircraft which reduces the price of each seat per mile even further, giving them the ability to sell tickets even lower. So you can't compare BA with CA, because the playing field is uneven.
Also, BA is probably able to obtain cheaper bulk fuel than CA. Also note, that BA is also able to lock in fuel prices from hedging and maintenance costs are also lower because they bulk buy parts, whereas CA is very limited because its market presence is far lower, and its volumes are reduced.
The cost of a seat on an A320 is far more than a seat on an A380 or A340. You really can't be comparing CA with BA, Singapore, or QANTAS.
The other issue you completely ignored is the fact that Affordable Safety has permitted you to purchase cheaper tickets on airlines such as BA. You also neglected to address the fact that pilot productivity has dramatically increased, yet wages have declined. You have also neglected to address the fact that Affordable Safety, and the blatant disregard to Flight and Duty restrictions have also reduced prices and yet you still complain. But I do wonder how much you would complain when there is a CA or BA air crash with a loved one on board (heaven forbid).
