The past 12 months proved to be a banner year for airlines, with pandemic-related disruptions largely over, but appetite for travel remaining strong enough for operators to continue putting up ticket prices without suffering any hit to demand.
Low-cost behemoth Ryanair (IE:RYA) made a share price return of 56 per cent in 2023, with competitors easyJet (EZJ) and Aim-traded Jet2 (JET2) also making gains of 57 per cent and 30 per cent, respectively, as both ramped up sales of package holidays.
Both airlines and hotel operators have been able to keep raising prices. As of October, average passenger fares were 56 per cent higher than in the same month in 2019, according to the Office for National Statistics. However, momentum is slowing. After two years of double-digit increases, air fare inflation in the UK was up 7.9 per cent in October, according to CAPA Centre for Aviation. Revenue per available room (revpar) for London hotels in December was about 30 per cent higher than in the same month in 2019, with year-on-year growth coming in at 7.8 per cent, according to consultancy STR.