Jane Chen / Shanghai Daily news
Chen, a local lady, opted to take the train for her holiday to Beijing,
expecting no discounts on airfares during the upcoming weeklong holiday that
starts May 1.
But her expectation seems wrong.
Air tickets for flights
from Shanghai to Beijing on April 30 are now half price, 620 yuan (US$75), a
little higher than the 478 yuan of her railway ticket.
Besides the busy
Shanghai-Beijing route, unexpected discounts are being offered on many other
domestic flights in the holiday, a traditional travel peak, the Shanghai Morning
Post said.
For example, discounts up to 60 percent are being offered around
April 30 from Shanghai to Chongqing, Chengdu, Minayang, and 20 percent off is
available on flights to Xi'an, Qingdao, Dalian and Haikou. But airfares
remain at full prices on services to Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Sanya, Kunming and
Luoyang.
The discounts break the price agreement established by the major
carriers earlier this month after the new round of air service schedules began
on March 27. Under the agreement, carriers were to unite to protect the
air industry by preventing discounts deeper than 20 percent.
It is the
smaller air companies that have first reduced ticket prices to attract
passengers and therefore triggered the price competition, according to industry
insiders.
Bigger firms, though disagreeing with the low-price strategy, must
follow the practice to maintain their occupancy rates, they said.
Insiders
expect more price breaks when the holiday week is over.