Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) Director-General Lee Lung-wen (李龍文) said yesterday that airlines had yet to propose pricing schemes for cross-strait regular flights, and warned travel agencies against selling tickets prematurely.
Lee said airlines must submit pricing schemes that detail both nominal prices and retail prices. The schemes must be submitted at least 15 days before a new flight route begins, he said.
The public expects reasonable prices, particularly since carriers began flying shorter cross-strait routes on Wednesday, but the chance of discounts is low for some of the most popular flights, such as those to Shanghai, Lee said.
China Airlines Ltd (CAL,華航) and EVA Airways Corp (EVA,長榮) started a price war by announcing promotional prices for cross-strait charter flights, which are expected to be used as base for the prices of the regular flights to be launched next month.
CAL reduced its one-month advance purchase ticket to Shanghai from NT$16,250 to NT$14,400.
EVA introduced a two-week advance purchase ticket to Shanghai that cut the cost of the ticket to NT$14,500.
An article on China Economic Net, a Web site launched by China’s Economic Daily, said a Chinese airline was planning to cut the cost of a Taiwan-to-Shanghai ticket from 3,700 yuan (US$542) to about 2,500 yuan.
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