By Avi Aranb
Ever wondered, why flight ticket prices show a lot of fluctuation, sometimes even within a span of a few days? Why booking in advance might be helpful as you may find the prices much cheaper? Read further to know more about factors that affect flight prices.
Flight prices are a topic that can often be controversial when you find out that the person sitting next to you might have paid a bit less to get the same ticket as yours. While there is no point in whining about it then, what you can actually do is know about how flight ticket prices are decided and what are the factors that affect them.
Five factors that determine the price of flight tickets
- Distance: This is one of the basic and most common factors that affect the price of an air ticket. It is pretty much obvious that the farther you travel, your ticket price will definitely be higher. It follows an almost direct relation with the price of the ticket. However, that being said, it should also be noted that distance is not the only factor that decides the cost of an air ticket; it is just one of the factors. Therefore, it may so happen that you may find some contradictions to this relation in some exceptional cases. What is being talked here is more of a generalized concept.
- Timing of flight as well as purchase: Both the timing of the purchase, as well as the timing of the flight, play a crucial role in determining the flight ticket charge. For example, if you book a ticket well in advance, say 2-3 months before your travel, you are bound to have a lower price compared to if you purchase it before say 1-2 weeks of travel. Similarly, you may find that flights that run during off-hours, like late night or very early in the morning, would comparatively be cheaper than the one’s running during the daytime.
- Seasonality: Another crucial decider is the season in which you are travelling. If you look to purchase flight tickets during the holiday season, you will mostly have to pay a higher amount. The holiday season involves tons of people looking to buy air tickets, which means the demand is exceptionally high. The basic law of demand and supply increases the price of tickets. So, travel during a non-holiday season can definitely save you some money.
- Competition: Monopoly has and will never be a good thing for consumers. The company will flourish by exploiting individuals, but the consumers will simply have no other alternative. Hence, competition is extremely important when it comes to flight ticket prices. A relatively remote location which let us say only a few airlines cover will have a higher ticket price than a place which has a lot of airline companies running to and fro.
- Travel type: If you have not understood the term, that’s completely fine. The point trying to be highlighted here is that direct flights from one place to another will be more costly than indirect flights. Indirect flights have either 1 or 2 stops between the start and the final destination. The number of stops generally depends on the distance between the origin and the destination. The number of halts might also affect the cost of the plane ticket.
If you plan to travel to a place via air, or if you are planning a vacation, keep these factors in mind before you finalize your bookings. Take time and analyze all these factors, and look for options that will not only suit your needs but will also be pocket friendly. Moreover, look out for websites which might offer your points or rewards if you book flight tickets and travel a certain distance with them. Those rewards could later be redeemed as discounts or cash back!
