While airlines on international routes insist that they are not unfairly hiking summer air fares, the big jump in ticket prices this year has consumers steamed.
"The price to get home this year to the US is outrageous compared to summers gone by," said Allen Chen, a 45-year-old Asian American who plans to get away from Taipei's heat during his summer vacation.
Starting from this week, round-trip airfares on international flights to the US, Europe and Japan will jump to between NT$1,000 and NT$10,000 per ticket as carriers prepare to capitalize on an increase in seasonal demand.
Flights to the US have seen the biggest price hike, with an average increase of NT$6,000 per ticket, ranging between NT$32,000 and NT$46,000.
On average, this year's price rise is NT$2,000 higher than last year's, because of a decline in tourism following the Sept. 11 attacks in the US, according to David Wu (
For past summer seasons, a 10 percent to 20 percent rise was the norm -- but this year airfares have risen by as much as as 30 percent.
The extra 10 percent jump this year is also believed to be the result of rising crude-oil prices and foreign exchange rates, according to a market insider, who refused to be identified.
Rebecca Hsu (
"The demand is so high that no airlines need to lower prices to attract passengers," Hsu said. "In fact, flights to the US are so fully booked that seats may be hard to come by."
The prices may also be the result of extra war-risk insurance charges, that could run up to NT$2,400 per ticket on passengers, she said.
"Even China Airlines Co (
Officials from the Consumers' Foundation (消基會) said that the semantics of carrier pricing policies are confusing to the consumer.
"Airline companies excuse themselves by saying that they are not raising prices, but are instead eliminating discounts," Consumers' Foundation Chairman Yu Ming-kuo (游明國) said.
While the price hike is high, there's nothing the foundation can do unless the Cabinet's Fair Trade Commission launches an investigation into the matter based on consumer complaints, he said.
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