No apology necessary. Actually, your second response was acccurate in regards to how heavily taxied this industry is.

As compared to the other economic theories expressed by others above (adjusted for 2009 dollars, or adjusted for inflation, etc), our round trip base airfare of $180.00, or $90.00 one way doesn’t fit the comparisons the other posters are trying to make. As I said, we had the advantage of advance purchase, non-refundable conditions which contributed to the good price.

My point is that when 2/3 of the total cost of a transatlantic ticket is taxes, the airline is spending more effort in being a tax collector for the various governments and agencies involved. The proportionately smaller amount of the actual airfare going to BA or any other airline which 1) results in substandard service because the airline itself isn’t making enough money for itself to operate properly. That leads to 2) their need to impose the additonal fees for services which used to be complimentary.

And.. trust me, when you have to get up at 4 am to take an 830 am morning flight, the only choice of reheated, gummy pasta for breakfast is disgusting.

NOT BAD?…………No seriously, why arent you saying. IT’S AMAZING, in the year, 2009, i can fly to EUROPE each way for $270.00???
Can you travel to Europe, any other way, more cheaply? Yet, the choice of HOT meals was sub-standard when they ran out.

On the picture of Mrs. Castellano’s ticket, which isn’t totally clear, but it looks like the total tax for her ticket was $120.00. If that was in fact the amount, the base fare for one way transatlantic flight was $175.00, compared to our round trip base fare of $180.00. I know our family’s fares were based on a round trip purchase and carried many other conditions and restrictions – so perhaps that is an unfair comparison.

Assuming $120.00 was the correct amount of tax charged, the percentage of tax on the base fare of $175.00 is somewhere around 68.5%. The total of taxes on my base fare is more than 200%.

I am in no way defending the airlines – on each of these flights the service was not up to the usual BA standards and they ran out of hot meals in each direction. Perhaps with the airlines having to collect so many taxes and surcharges, they have no recourse but to reduce the base airfares to a ridiculous amount simply in order to keep the total charge to the passenger fairly reasonable, prompting the rise in the other service fees to add to the airline’s revenue stream and not the government. Just a thought…

I think the airlines are following in the cruise lines footsteps with their added charged, don’t you?

I can think of three reasons:

1> The difference is not so great. Adjusted for inflation, a cruise has declined in cost about 50% since 1988. I’d have to check but I think the airline change in time is closer to 80% as they have priced themselves to oblivion. Also, cruise ships have increased in capacity by a larger percentage, allowing for economies of scale.

2> Staffing. Cruise lines rely on cheaper labor from the Phillipines, etc, and much of the labor on board is relatively unskilled.

3> Ancilliary revenues. Cruise ships have gift shops, bars, get a cut of excursions, etc, all of which provide additional revenue. The airlines are embracing this approach.

You could also make the case that service has reduced on Cruise ships during that period, and also add in a multiplier factor based on the different number of vehicles operated by an airline versus a cruise line (each vehicle adds a fixed cost).

An inside cabin on the Norwegian Epic in March of 2011 would cost $1907

If the cruise lines pricing can remain profitable while bucking inflation, why not the airlines?