Are airlines discounting to boost demand during pandemic?
Due to a confluence of factors resulting from the pandemic and government intervention, commercial airlines (at least in the U.S.) have to continue operating scheduled flights – even with few to no passengers!
The absence of paying passengers is also an understandable result of the pandemic and widespread intervention to discourage spread of the coronavirus. However, air travel has not been banned, and airlines have taken measures to maximize social distancing of whatever passengers do fly.
In a situation like this where supply (of commercial airline seats) so outstrips demand, it is normal to see suppliers discounting the cost of their service to boost demand. Is this happening? And if not, is there a known reason why not?
(I'm not a frequent flier, but I checked a few routes with which I am familiar and could not see any decrease from pre-crisis ticket prices.)
Best Answer
In many cases, airlines won't have to drum up passenger demand because freight carriage on many routes will be enough to cover the cost of the flight - airline freight demand saw a slump in 2019 and the first two months of 2020, but since then it has seen a huge resurgence as demand has picked up.
Several airlines are converting passenger aircraft to temporary cargo aircraft (meaning they can carry cargo on the main deck as well as in the cargo hold), which shows just what the upsurge is.
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