Expect the cost of your airfare to continue to rise, an aviation trade group and industry heads warn

Jon Gambrell, Associated Press

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The costs of your adjacent formation is apt to spell up.

That’s nan connection from nan International Air Transport Association, which held its yearly gathering Monday successful Dubai, location to nan long-haul bearer Emirates.

While carriers retrieve from nan groundings worldwide from nan coronavirus pandemic, manufacture leaders told journalists that location are respective costs apt to push those summons prices ever higher.

Part of that comes from worldwide inflation, an ongoing problem since nan pandemic started. Jet substance costs, astir a 3rd of each hose expenses, stay high. Meanwhile, a world push for nan aviation manufacture to decarbonize has much carriers fighting for nan small magnitude of alleged sustainable aviation fuel, aliases SAF, disposable successful nan market.

“The airlines will proceed to do everything they tin to support costs successful power arsenic overmuch arsenic imaginable for nan use of consumers,” said Willie Walsh, nan director-general of nan the International Air Transport Association, an industry-trade group. “But I deliberation it’s unrealistic to expect that airlines tin proceed to sorb each of nan costs. … It’s not thing we for illustration to do, but it’s thing we person to do.”

Also pressuring nan manufacture is simply a pandemic hangover successful craft accumulation arsenic well, they say. Carriers now support older planes that pain much substance flying longer. There besides aren’t capable caller craft to grow routes and summation proviso to bring down wide prices.

That informing comes arsenic nan IATA estimates globally, hose gross will scope astir $1 trillion successful 2024, a grounds high. There will beryllium 4.96 cardinal travelers connected airplanes this year, pinch full expenses for carriers reaching $936 cardinal — different grounds high.

But manufacture profits besides are expected to beryllium astir $60 cardinal this year.

In particular, Emirates, a main driver for Dubai’s economy, saw grounds profits of $4.7 cardinal successful 2023 disconnected revenues of $33 billion.

The Emirates’ results way pinch those for its base, Dubai International Airport. The world’s busiest airdrome for world travelers had 86.9 cardinal passengers past year, surpassing numbers for 2019 conscionable earlier nan coronavirus pandemic grounded world aviation.

The airdrome now plans to move to nan city-state’s second, sprawling airfield successful its confederate godforsaken reaches successful nan adjacent 10 years successful a task worthy astir $35 billion.

Tim Clark, nan airline’s president, obliquely acknowledged that Monday by saying that he didn’t want group to “get boxes of tissues retired and play nan violins” erstwhile informing that nan industry’s profit margins beryllium successful nan debased azygous digits. However, he contended that arsenic airlines person grown larger and carriers consolidated, costs savings person softly been passed onto consumers now capable to book flights crossed nan world.

“It is rather astonishing that summons prices are wherever they are today,” Clark said. “I deliberation nan value-for-money proposition that nan consumers person had nan use from for galore decades is thing that is 1 of those hidden bits of nan narrative.”

Yvonne Manzi Makolo, nan CEO of RwandAir, besides highlighted nan taxes and fees imposed connected carriers by nan countries they run in. She specifically cited those paid by carriers flying retired of African nations arsenic “already ridiculous.”