Wendy Zhang/ Shanghai Daily news
As of yesterday, air-ticket buyers from Nanjing can enjoy up to 65 percent in
discounts when travelling to other domestic cities, indicating that the
agreement by domestic airlines to stabilize prices has been broken after a
little over a month, eastday.com reported today.
A ticket from Nanjing to
Beijing is only 350 yuan (US$42), Guangzhou is just 530 yuan, and Xia'men is
only 340 yuan with the 65 percent discount. As of last month to the end of the
weeklong May Day holiday, only 20 percent discounts were offered on the
routes.
The new prices from Nanjing to Guangzhou, Beijing and Xia'men are the
lowest to date, said an air-ticket seller in Nanjing, adding that even with the
airport construction fee, the air-ticket from Nanjing to Beijing is only 390
yuan, even cheaper than a soft-sleeper train ticket.
Nearly all airlines have
special offers and each airplane has more than 20 such seats, the seller pointed
out, adding that the special offer will end next month.
It is unrealistic to
form price agreements in a competitive industry, said an analyst with the
Nanjing civil aviation industry.
Fuel prices, amounting to between 20 and 30
percent of the operational costs of airlines, increased by 430 yuan per ton in
March this year.