The "cheap flights" era is over
The penny seems to be dropping, albeit slowly and late. Oil is a finite resource: as it gets scarcer, the price increases. The car industry is future-proofing itself by developing electric cars. There are no electric planes for the passenger routes to Belfast, Boston or Bangkok. Aviation is a sunset industry.
Willie Walsh, the chief executive of the company formed by the merger of British Airways and Spain's Iberia, said consumers must get used to higher ticket prices. Arguing there had been a "structural shift in the price of oil", Mr Walsh said:
"The industry is going to have to price in $120 oil. As a percentage of our cost base, it's 32%. For the low-cost guys it's more like 50%. It is such a big part of an airline's costs that fares will have to go up."
British Airways, IAG, Iberia, Oil, Willie Walsh