Airlines pay price for creating ‘flying is cheap’ image

The aviation industry is guilty of creating the impression that “flying is cheap” and will pay the price as rocketing oil prices in the coming months force no-frills carriers out of business, the joint head of the world’s biggest airline has said.

Peter Hartman, the chief executive of the Dutch company KLM, one half of Air France/KLM, said airlines had been wrong in allowing consumers seduced by the arrival of budget carriers such as Ryanair and easyJet to think that the low cost of flying would continue for ever.

The aviation executive told The Independent that while his own company was insulated against some of the effects of the rapidly rising fuel costs because of its strategy for hedging fuel contracts three to four years in advance, he expected “bloodshed” elsewhere in the industry as carriers struggle to absorb a 90 per cent increase in kerosene prices over the past 12 months.

Independent