Airline alliances are adopting capacity discipline and taking a conservative approach to any capacity increase on the North Atlantic route. This route includes flights from the United States / Canada to destinations in Europe.
Delta Air Lines reduced its Atlantic seat capacity by 7 percent in the second quarter of 2012 while American Airlines reduced capacity by 9.2 percent when compared to the same quarter in the previous year.
With seat capacity at lower levels and demand for flights slowly increasing as the economic situation improves, airlines will not have to lower prices and offer cheap airfare to Europe to fill their planes.
While there may be the occasional sale or discount offer on a newly introduced route or new un-affiliated airline, the major airlines will continue to use code-share agreements to maintain the appearance of having many choices for flights to Europe.
In reality the number of flights will continue to be restricted by their alliance’s capacity controls.
The cost of tickets on each flight will increase as the remaining seats on the flight decrease. Buy your tickets early to find the lowest prices.
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